


Child of Mine

by Erica_T



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Babyfic, Developing Relationship, F/M, Feels, Pre-Relationship, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-01-16 06:46:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 84,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1335895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erica_T/pseuds/Erica_T
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy liked vacations.  The thing about vacations, is that she got to do things she didn't get to do normally.  Things like touring ancient ruins, tasting new food, hooking up with the edgy, kind of dangerous looking guy she met on the ferry to Greece.  Spending the last week of her vacation in a luxury villa that she could never have afforded, ever, with the same guy is really just icing on the cake.  </p><p>The one thing that Darcy didn't count on was discovering well after the fact that their birth control measures had failed spectacularly.    </p><p>She also didn't count on meeting Steve Rogers only a couple of months later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merideath](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merideath/gifts), [Ladysarah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladysarah/gifts).



> I had this idea some time ago, to have Darcy meeting Steve already unexpectedly pregnant, but I couldn't get it off the ground. Then, a tumblr thing that Merideath answered related an idea that she had with Darcy having a fling with Bucky while on vacation, and getting pregnant. This led to many feels on her meeting and falling in love with Steve, and then the general discovery that Bucky was her baby's father, and all the associated feels that went with that. Only, as wonderful as she is, she wasn't sure she'd get around to writing it. 
> 
> Well. LadySarah, also known as nourgelitnius, weighed in with accolades for the idea, and despair that it wasn't going to happen. Of course, it just had to be written, since it was already something that I wanted to do, and the idea of doing it with Bucky gave it a whole new set of wings, I begged and pleaded to be able to take the idea and run with it. I wish I had a gif of an excited terrier jumping up and down, because that's pretty much what I was doing in my chair. 
> 
> Blessing given, here is the story. 
> 
> I only hope that I do it justice ladies!

Prologue

 

The ocean breeze wafting through the open window was as refreshing as a coffee in the morning, in some ways.

However, since she was about to trek to the Parthenon, she was grateful for the gorgeous smelling cup of dark roast that appeared in front of her face just a few moments after she opened her eyes. The scent of it brewing must have been what had woken her.

"Good morning." The owner of the hand handing her the coffee said. She pushed her hair out of her face and took the mug from him with a smile.

"Morning. This is a surprise." Experience this past week had been that she was usually the one prodding him out of bed.

"Today's the Parthenon, right? Figured you could use the caffeine to get you going."

"I could, thanks. Are you sure that you don't want to come with? It's a pretty awesome historic site."

Something passed through his eyes at that moment, she'd seen it before in the time that they'd been together. Some darkness was following him, and it would grip him every once in a while. It was a little frightening, what she could see when she caught it, when he let her catch it in his face, but it was clearly something that he was trying to put behind him.

"I've seen it, sweetheart. You go and enjoy it. There's... a few things I gotta do today anyway, before we bug out on Sunday."

"Do you need any help, because I could do the Parthenon tomorrow..."

"You booked your tour for today, I saw your itinerary, remember? Don't worry about it, it's not huge, just stuff that's gotta get done."

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure."

"Okay, I'm getting up then. I call dibs on the shower." She rolled out of bed expertly and stepped over the bundle of his pants and shoes on her way out the bedroom door.

"Hey, Darce?"

"Yeah?" "All this with you, it's been the best thing I've done in a very long time." She blinked. She hadn't been expecting the stark honesty in his face, it was almost brutal. She offered him one of her best smiles in return.

"Same here. See you when I get back?"

"Yeah...when you get back."

 

Later, when the sun was starting to fade down over the trees, Darcy came back from her tour tired and dusty, to find the villa quiet and still. He wasn't there. In the back her mind, she knew it was probably going to end like this. He'd told her flat out that he'd probably just disappear from her life one night. Still...the romantic part of her had hoped that maybe there could have been a little something more.

 

****

 

Two months after reporting to Jane for duty, the scientist had found Darcy with her head in the toilet far too many times, and forced her into a chemist's (because if she's in London, she's going to use the local terms, dammit) to select the best pregancy test that an intern's non existant salary can buy.  And by that, Jane used thirty American dollars out of the grant money to buy it for her.  She then shoved her into the bathroom and forbade her to come out until she had peed on it.  For a tiny little woman, she was exceptionally strong, and Darcy knew all about her determination.  It was better to just do it and get it over with.

Once she was allowed to leave the bathroom, Darcy found herself pacing around the tiny space that passed as Jane's lab while Jane kept the time on one of her gadgets.

"Okay.  That's two minutes." Jane said, her voice loud in the quiet of the room.  Darcy sucked in a breath and plucked the plastic stick out of the sample container that Jane had given her.

"I don't know if I can do this."

Jane rolled her eyes at her, and took it from her hands.

"Two blue lines.  Congratulations, Darcy, it looks like you're pregnant." Darcy flopped down onto a convenient sofa, and blew her hair out of her eyes.

"Well.... Fuck."


	2. First Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first meetings between Steve Rogers and Darcy Lewis are mildly awkward, but worthwhile in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course, after I put up an awesome prologue (seriously, thanks to everyone for their wonderful comments, I do love you, even if I don't actually answer you) the first actual chapter of the story fights with me and decides to rewrite itself twice. However, I am now happy with it, and it is ready for viewer consumption.

Chapter 1

 

"Steven!" Thor's voice bellowed when Steve entered the common living room of the newly named 'Avengers' Tower. It had been hard not to notice the chatter when London happened. There were still clean up teams out there picking up the remnants of alien tech, and the last he heard, Barton was still chasing some big alien monster through the docks. It wasn't terribly hostile, apparently, it was mostly interested in chasing birds. It just didn't like being shot at all that much, and it wasn't fond of lumbering its way into traps.

When word had come down that Thor was back, SHIELD had pulled Jane Foster back to New York, and through some convoluted series of events that he was sure he was better off not asking about, Tony ended up making SHIELD agree to letting her work in the Tower in his research facilities with himself and Dr. Banner. This had made her happy, because she had a beef with SHIELD, and also made Thor extremely happy, because then he could see her and all of his newfound friends all at once. Steve had been happy to hear that he was coming back, there hadn't been much opportunity to get to know Thor during his last foray on Earth, and he was looking forward to fixing that. 

He was also eager to meet Ms. Foster, because her research was exactly the kind of stuff he'd been reading in his pulp science fiction stories back when he was a kid, and he was really interested in knowing more about it, though he half expected that once she got to talking about it, he was going to lose the thread of the conversation, because astrophysicist he was not. 

He reached out a hand to shake Thor's as the man approached him, clasping his forearm warmly. 

"Thor, it's nice to see you again." 

"Indeed! You have missed the opportunity to join me in battle once again, my friend, but I do not doubt we will have another opportunity sooner than we may wish for." 

Steve grinned wryly, he was probably more right than they really wanted him to be. He said as much, and Thor pulled him farther into the room, where he could see Tony and a small brunette woman in the midst of an in depth conversation that seemed to also involve a lot of flailing arms. Dr. Banner was off to the side, carefully out of arms reach. Thor led him over to them straight away, so he assumed that this was Jane Foster. 

"Come, you must meet Jane. Jane, this is my friend the Captain, Steven Rogers. Steven, this is Jane Foster." 

The woman was successfully distracted from her conversation and she offered him one of her hands. 

"Captain America, right? Hi, it's nice to meet you." She said.

"Uh, likewise. I've read some of your research Dr. Foster, it's very interesting." 

She looked faintly surprised, but largely pleased.

"Really? Thank you, it's an absolutely amazing subject, and we're on the verge of a breakthrough, Erik had the right idea with the devices we used in England, they just need some more tweaking..." 

"Which is why all of her research is now being funded by Stark Industries." Tony piped up. Thor looked around the room, an eyebrow raised in question. 

"Where is Darcy?" He asked Dr. Foster, who also looked around. 

"She was right here just a second ago...she had better not be trying to sneak coffee, Darcy!" 

There was a clatter and a crash from the kitchen, and Thor stopped her from darting in that general direction with a quick, but gentle hand. 

"Stay, you are speaking. I will see to the goings on in the kitchen. And I must introduce Steven to Darcy. I think you will like our Darcy, Steven, she is most entertaining." 

Steve followed Thor to the common kitchen area, where a stream of colorful curses could be heard.

"Fucking, fuckity hell in a hole. Thanks a lot, assholes." The distinctly feminine voice was more irritated than anything else, and he rounded the corner to find a Thor helping pretty young woman cleaning up what looked like a broken glass off the floor. There was a tray of them on the counter and what looked like a carafe of coffee standing to the side. She kept talking as they were cleaning up the mess. "I mean, seriously, the shortest one of you guys is what, 5'8? And I'm sure that if Stark wants something from the top shelf he has a robot or rocket shoes to help him get it. How are the vertically challenged supposed to be able to do things around here without some accidents? It's too high an expectation." 

"Hush, Darcy. Accidents will happen, I have learned this. You should not be concerning yourself with this in any case." 

The girl, obviously Darcy, narrowed her eyes at him. 

"I don't know what drivel Jane has been feeding you about pregnant women, Thor, but I'm not an invalid, and a tray of glasses and a pitcher of punch is not that heavy."

"Jane has fed me no 'drivel' as you put it, and that is not what I was talking about. We are welcoming you to this fine place, you should not be doing the work." 

"Yeah, well, if I don't no one else is going to, and you would all go thirsty out there while I laughed and said I told you so." 

She stood carefully from the floor and caught sight of Steve standing in the doorway. The way that her eyes widened when she did was comical, and he almost laughed. He was kind of used to it at this point, just about everyone did a double take when they saw him for the first time. She opened her mouth to say something, then turned and smacked Thor in the arm.

"Hey, aren't you going to introduce your friend?" She asked him, tilting her head in his general direction. Thor stood and set the shards he'd gathered into a dustbin.

"Of course. Darcy, this is my friend Steven. Steven, this is my lady Darcy. She has been a steadfast companion to my Jane these last two years." 

Darcy turned back to him and offered him a shy smile and a hand, which he took and shook gently. 

"It's a pleasure, Miss Darcy." 

She blushed and pulled her hand away as quickly as could be considered polite. 

"Oh...just Darcy. I'm not important enough for an honorary." She said. Thor frowned at her and absently passed her a bottle of water from the countertop. 

"Ridiculous. Of course you are, Darcy. You must not take all that she says seriously, Steven. The lady Darcy has a tendency to underestimate her value." She smacked him again, but Thor only laughed, picked up the tray and led the way back out to the living area. Steve indicated that Darcy should precede him, earning a smile from her at the gesture. 

In the living room Dr. Foster grasped her arm and drew her into conversation with herself and Tony, while Thor distributed coffee, and Dr. Banner slipped away from the science conversation to come over his way and talk to him. 

By the time that Pepper Potts arrived and started trying to steer Tony out of talking science, Steve noticed that Darcy had shifted to the outskirts of the conversations. Eventually, she disappeared, and when he looked around he caught sight of her back as she disappeared into the kitchen once more.

He wasn't sure what it was that made him follow her a few minutes later. She was leaning backwards against the sink, languidly sipping from her bottle of water and looking less annoyed than she had before. The way she was standing, you couldn't tell that she was pregnant, except for the way she passed a hand over her lower abdomen when she shifted on his entrance. She raised her eyebrows at him, and he smiled at her.

"Feeling antisocial?" He asked lightly. She snorted.

"Uh, yeah, a bit. I could blame the hormones, and if Jane or Thor ask I probably will." She sighed and swirled her water around in the bottle, watching it spin. 

"But?" He encouraged, fetching down a glass from the appropriate cabinet and getting himself some water as well. 

"But, and no offense, that is pretty much all superheroes and superhero girlfriends in there. I fit into neither category. I'm just the intern, I drive the car, coallate data and fetch and carry Jane's stuff. The science goes over my head most of the time, and lately she hasn't been letting me do much of the carrying. Really, sometimes I think the only reason I'm here is because I have nowhere else to go." 

That was a feeling that Steve was well acquainted with, both now and in his past. Struggling to find a place in the world seemed to be a constant no matter what decade he was living in. It was mildly comforting to know that he wasn't the only one who felt like that. 

"Well...as places go to feel out of place, I've been in worse. At least here the food's good, and the beds are comfortable. The only trade off is Tony, and even he grows on you after a while." 

Her lips twisted and suddenly she was laughing. It transformed her face completely, and Steve thought it was a much better look than the shy smile she'd been sporting most of the evening. 

"That was a good one, dude, thank you." 

Steve shrugged, and finished his water. 

"Thor said that you've been with Jane for two years?" 

She sobered again, but her eyes were still bright. 

"Ah. Yes, I was her intern in New Mexico when Thor made his first visit from far beyond the heavens. We uh...well, we hit him with the truck a couple of times and I may have tased him once. In my defence, he was freaking me out. That was only supposed to be a six month assignment to earn my science credits, but after Thor happened...Jane needed a friend. Long story short, here I am. In Tony Stark's kitchen, talking to Captain America. My life is unreal." 

"You get used to it. Trust me." He mused. 

Anything she might have said in return was interrupted by Dr. Foster appearing in the doorway, eyes sharp and narrowed.

"If you're sneaking coffee..."

"Oh my god, Jane, I am not sneaking coffee! One time, and I never hear the end of it!" 

The other woman just rolled her eyes.

"Come on you two, Stark is talking about getting a massive amount of take out, and we're all getting hungry."

"Just no chinese." Darcy commented, following her out of the kitchen rubbing at her belly. She looked back at Steve, waiting for him to follow and pausing to explain: "The last time we had chinese, it did not go well. You do not want to know what kung pao chicken looks coming the opposite direction." 

Steve tried not to think about that as he followed the women out of the kitchen. 

* * * 

After that first meeting, Steve saw Darcy mostly around the labs the few weeks leading up to Christmas. He knew that they all had their own apartments in this massive Tower, Tony had delighted in talking about everything that he was putting in for each of his new friends, inlcuding any associates that they might be bringing in with them at any given time. That was why there was an apartment not far from Bruce's for Betty Ross, and why when he'd been building for Thor he'd included a place for Jane Foster. Steve was effectively splitting his time between New York and Washington anymore, but Tony had still built him a place. When he'd tried to argue him out of it, the man had just pointed out that it was cheaper than a whole second apartment, and it was more reliable than a hotel. At that point Miss Potts advised him that it was better to just thank him for it, because arguing him out of it was never going to happen. 

While he saw just about everyone around the common kitchen and living room at any given time, he never saw Darcy. Given how close she and Dr. Foster had seemed, that confused him a little. So, on a day when he was sparring with Thor, he asked after her, mentioning it in passing. 

"Ah yes. It would seem that our friend Stark did not anticipate that my Jane would not part with her associates. She fought valiantly to be able to bring Darcy with her to New York. I believe the organization that Son of Coul was party to wished to bring her into their ranks. However, Jane would not hear of this. Fortunately Stark interceded and made Jane the offer of his facilities, and agreed that Darcy was included in the offer. Unfortunately, as he had not included her in his plans for this place, she is housed on a lower level of the Tower. Jane has protested, but Darcy says that she is quite content where she is. I believe she thinks that she will be a bother if she resides elsewhere." 

Steve blocked a punch and went for the man's legs. 

"I really don't think anyone would mind if she came up to the common levels." 

"Nor do I, and I have told her that she is most welcome." Thor dodged and aimed another punch at Steve's midsection. "It is not that she is not a friendly person, as she was most eager to befriend me when I was first on Earth, and she is most easygoing. I believe the issue is that she is feeling out of her element, given all that has transpired during the time since we last met, and her personal situation." 

Steve rolled away from the punch and came up behind him, trying to get the Norse god in a chokehold. 

"You mean because she's pregnant." 

Thor nodded, effectively breaking the hold and flipping him over his head, onto the mats. Steve rolled away and they circled each other warily looking for openings. 

"She is largely alone in a place that she has never been to before. From my own experience, it was tremendously difficult when I was faced with the idea of making an entirely new planet my home, to be facing such a change when it is not only yourself that you must care for, it must be very daunting. She has Jane of course, and I try to offer my support as much as I can, but I must confess, I do worry for her." 

"Her baby's father didn't come with her?" Steve asked. Thor shook his head.

"She has not spoken much of the child's father. Only that he was a man she met while on a holiday, before she joined Jane again in...London." He said the word like it was unfamiliar, and it probably was. "I don't believe that she expects to see him again. A fling, that was the term that both she and Jane used when they were explaining to me."

They stopped circling, mutually declaring the match over. 

"That sounds like it was a bit involved." 

Thor laughed, though he looked mildly embarrassed. 

"There are many ways of this world that are unfamilliar to me. Quite a few, I have needed assistance to understand. You see, on Asgard, we do not leave our women with child and unsupported That is a dishonourable act, and there are recourses for the family of those wronged to take. I may have been momentarily intent on hunting this man down on behalf of her honour. Jane and Darcy...they explained that here, many women bear children out of wedlock, of their own choosing. It is not a matter of dishonour to either the man or the woman if a child is born such. They also explained that Darcy could have chosen not to bear this child if she felt that she was not ready. T'was...enlightening." 

Steve nodded, drinking from a bottle of water. 

"There were plenty of single mothers where and when I grew up. Mine was one of them. Most of them would tell you that their husbands were killed in the war, like my father was. Only about half of them would be telling the truth, but it was easier on them, to explain a child away by using the war as a scapegoat. Times were hard then, people took what comfort they could...no one wants to be alone."

Thor agreed with him. 

"My hope is that with time she will adjust to life here and her spirits will lift. I know I shall keep trying to aid in that endeavor."

Steve managed to nod in agreement, even though he didn't quite feel it. After all, this was something that he was still working on, a year later. 

 

* * * 

Darcy had not expected to run into Captain America, or rather, Steve Rogers, again. He had been quite nice to her when she and Jane had moved into the Tower, but he was Captain America. The dude had to have better things to do than hang around the Tower in his free time. If he even had free time, frankly she wasn't so sure that any of the Avengers did. Even Thor was in and out on 'official' business. 

So, when she turned around in the kitchen one day after Christmas, two trays of coffee in her hands, she was surprised to find him standing behind her, smirking down at her. 

"I'm reasonably certain you're not supposed to be sneaking coffee." He joked, and she grinned up at him. 

"I am allowed to have one per day. And I had to argue it to death, expose Jane to me without a daily caffeine injection, and agree to mix it with half decaf for her to grudgingly agree to stop hounding me about it. However, these are for the three scientists currently living under a bunch of mangled machinery in Jane's lab." 

"There are six." He pointed out. She rolled her eyes. 

"Yeah, one for now, one that they'll heat up in the microwave down there in a couple of hours when the caffeine reserve runs out again. They may even drink it cold if they're on some kind of bender, I have no idea. But, it saves me a trip, or them yelling for me uselessly if I've declared my day over with. Which I will be doing as soon as I deliver these, because it's four thirty and Jane made me get up early this morning to watch the skies." 

"Smart. Watch the skies?" 

"In techno-science speak it has something to do with monitoring electrons or gravitrons or something space-y for three hours. In intern speak, it's watching a computer monitor for three hours to see if the picture changes, and making notes if it does. Spoiler alert, today it didn't change, so she was grumpy until lunch." 

There was a moment of slightly awkward silence after that, as she didn't really know what to say to him next. It wasn't really like they had a lot in common, except maybe feeling like fish out of water. She had a feeling though that being a poli sci major working in an astrophysicist's lab wasn't the same thing as being a soldier from the 1940's living in the 21st Century. Still...technically they were close in age, if she remembered her history, Steve Rogers was in his twenties when he disappeared, he'd be something like twenty seven now. And wasn't that a weird thought? Captain America actually exists in real life and he's in her preferred age bracket. Or, he would be, if she was looking for anything like that right now. 

"Would you like some help with those?" He offered, holding out a hand for one of her trays. She guessed that being the gentleman was second nature to him. 

"Sure. You know where the lab is right? I've seen you walking by a few times."

"Yeah, I know where it is." 

He fell into to step with her, which must have been a feat in itself, given the marked difference in their statures. 

"So...how is everything going with...uh..." She looked up at him, and he was waving his hand in the general direction of her midsection, and it was the most adorable thing she had ever seen. Seriously? Okay, this was definitely changing her view of the good Captain. 

"You have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?" She asked him, laughing. He laughed sharply, a sound that she wouldn't really define as a laugh, and then rubbed at the back of his neck with his free hand as if he was embarrased. The smile he gave her in the end was equal parts amused and nostalgic. 

"You are not the first woman I've spoken to. You're just the first pregnant one." 

She found that she couldn't maintain the laughter, whatever she'd inadvertantly reminded him of was painful, and the last thing she wanted was to be causing anyone pain by just being herself. Instead, she poked his arm playfully with her elbow.

"We're not exactly alien creatures you know. Well...actually, I'd bet that in the right mood swing I'd give Loki a run for his money, but still. Everything is fine, to answer your question. You don't need to treat me like I'm made of glass. I'd actually prefer it if you didn't." 

She saw him swallow, and the smile that he gave her in return was genuine this time, reaching up to his eyes.. 

"You know, you remind me a lot of someone that I knew once. She was one hell of a lady. If she'd had the opportunity, she would probably have said something very similar. And made her point with a handgun."

"I will take that as a compliment." She laughed and pushed open the door to the labs. It was deceptively quiet. She didn't trust it for a minute. "Hey, science nerds! Coffee!" She shouted into the air. There was a general murmur of excitment from somewhere underneath the monstrosity that they were building, and she was sure that she saw Jane's feet beginning to make an appearance. She shoved Steve out of the lab before any of them could fully materialize, because as she'd told him, she was totally done for the day and didn't want to get caught in a series of science speak when all she wanted was a couch and a TV set. She also wasn't sure that he was entirely prepared for all three of them on a science buzz, smart as he seemed to be. 

Safely out of sight, she turned to him to say goodbye, but as she looked at him; she realized that she didn't really want to. She watched him shove his hands in his pockets awkwardly, and she wondered if maybe he was having the same trouble. How many actual friends did this man have? Not counting the other members of the Avengers team, probably not that many. Certainly nobody who wasn't intimately connected with all the weird and wacky that had probably become his life since they thawed him out of the ice. 

"So..uh... the Looney Toons were around in the forties right? Are you into them?" She asked him. He raised an eyebrow at her. 

"You mean, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig?" 

She grinned at him. 

"Yeah, that's them. I have a DVD set that I haven't watched yet, if you're not busy...maybe you'd like to join me? As much as I'm done with working today...I'm not really ready to call it quits on all social interaction. If you can call arguing three scientists into eating social interaction. I've got pizza and popcorn, though if you eat like Thor, we may have to get JARVIS to call out for delivery." 

He laughed heartily, and she really liked the look that the freedom of it brought to his face. The guy obviously didn't get to really laugh all that much any more, which was a crying shame. And something that she could fix, if only temporarily. The Looney Toons could cure a lot of ills. 

"That sounds like a great idea. Lead the way." 

That night Darcy Lewis bonded with Steve Rogers over excellent vintage cartoons, some of which Steve had even more excellent stories about seeing shown for the first time ahead of films he snuck into the theatre to see, and two extra large pizzas with everything. 

It was probably the best night that either of them had had in a while.


	3. Cake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Steve are getting to know each other. There's a craving for cake, and they are not dates, Jane!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to SarahOl1 for offering to beta this beast, and for doing an awesome job with it.

After the Looney Toons night, Darcy felt like she had a better handle on Steve Rogers. 

On paper he was kind of intimidating--a guy out of the forties who'd fought Nazis and was a symbol for all that was good in the world. It was very intimidating to a girl with a few misspent teenage years smoking behind the sheds at school. 

The guy seemed more lonely than anything else, especially if he was good to spend three hours watching vintage cartoons with a pregnant girl he barely knew. But he had a wicked sense of humour, and actually explained a few of the references that went over most peoples heads these days. She for one, did not know that pawnbrokers had a symbol that they used to have outside of pawn shops. She supposed though, that Steve may have had more reason to be around pawnbrokers. 

Other things that he said were such comedy gold that she started having trouble remembering that he came from the forties at all. 

He had great stories, though. Steve Rogers had been a little shit stirrer when he was young, and he'd been pleased when she'd told him that if they'd known each other as kids, they would have been great friends. 

This was why she sought him out a day later, she wanted to know a little bit more about him. Steve Rogers was a man worth knowing better, she was sure about that. 

"Hey Steve." 

"Hi Darcy, what's going on?" 

"I am having a craving for cake. Where can I get cake?" 

He blinked at her, confusion evident in his eyes. 

"I'm pretty sure that you can get cake just about anywhere...." 

"Yes, but I want good cake. It needs to have heaps of icing and a big fat rose on it, made of more icing. And the icing has to be real." 

"Real? As opposed to fake icing?" 

"As opposed to the horrible whipped cream crap that most stores used as a topping that masquerades as icing. I am talking buttercream with loads of sugar. Two layers at least. I need cake like this, stat, or I will get cranky. There's gotta be a bakery somewhere in this city that has the kind of cake that I need." 

"And you're asking me?" 

"Sure. I'm talking the kind of bakery that's been around forever, and you have to have been scouring the city to see what's still around from back when you were running through its streets. Haven't you?" 

A smile was curling up his mouth and she saw the memory crawl through his eyes. 

"Aha! There is a bakery still around, isn't there? C'mon, give. I'm preggo, and you always have to feed the pregnant lady." 

"This is a rule?" 

"Sure. We're nearly always hungry."

He laughed and stood up from where he was sitting at the counter. 

"It's in Brooklyn, you up for the drive?" 

"For cake? Is that a trick question? I'll get my purse." 

* * *

Fifteen minutes later they were on the road to Brooklyn. The more she thought about it, the more it sounded like the title of a Broadway show. 

"It's this little Italian bakery. When I was a kid, they had the best goods in town. They were family owned, and the granddaughter of the daughter that I knew owns it now. They do a lot of custom work, you know, for events and such. She does well enough that she keeps the storefront open though." 

"It sounds amazing. I wanted to be a baker once. But then I turned six and wanted to be a snake charmer. I think my mother would have actually preferred that to professional baking though." 

"Oh?" 

Darcy really did not want to talk about her mother. 

"Yeah, she's really whacked. She wanted me to be a wedding planner. Right, sure." 

"Not fond of weddings?" 

"Are you kidding? All that foofaraw? Forget it. I don't even really want a wedding, I figure, if I find the right guy, a piece of paper isn't going to matter in the face of happily ever after. So, if I'm not planning my own wedding, why would I want to plan them for other people?"

He nodded, but she could tell that his mind was on something else. She hoped she hadn't stirred anything painful.

"What about you? Did you ever think about a tux and someone in a white dress?" 

The smile that he shot her was small, just a quick quirk of the lips. 

"Once. A long time ago." 

Now Darcy felt like a heel for asking. 

"I'm sorry..." 

"No, it's not like that. It wasn't anyone specific, really, we hadn't gotten past the first date yet. It's just...back before the serum, before the army, even before the war, I had this friend, and we used to talk about it. Meeting the right gal and gettin' married. It was the dream at the time, you know. Wife, kids, dog. I wasn't very good with girls, and they never really saw me. But I always thought I'd find someone to share my life with. It was a nice 'someday' to look forward to." 

The wistful way he said it tugged a bit at her. Nowadays people treated marriage like a joke, but the way that he talked about it gave it more substance. A little more meaning. 

"When you put it like that, it sounds nice. Maybe I'll change my mind, you never know. Someday." 

"I always liked the idea of 'someday'. It gave us something to hang on to." 

"Something is always better than nothing." Darcy agreed. And, deciding that they needed a change of subject, she latched onto the next thing in her brain. 

“So, exactly how much has changed?” He raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Sorry?”

“The world. They always say that the world has changed a lot since ‘my day’whenever ‘my day’was. How much of it has really changed?”

Steve’s chuckle was dry.

“Surprisingly, not a lot. There’s fancier toys, and better technology, but anybody who read the Amazing Stories comics and sci-fi pulp novels could have told you that most of the stuff you kids can’t live without these days was dreamed up by someone ages ago. But there are still sleazy politicians, corrupt officials and people who grease wheels because they can. In fundamentals, it’s not really all that different, just the buildings they lurk in are taller.”

“Is there anything that’s taken you by surprise? Something that you can't get your head around?”

“There are lots of things that I can't get my head around. I’ll show you my list sometime.”

“List?”

“Yeah…the way people talk anymore, it’s half in references to things I wasn’t around for. So, if I don’t get a reference, I write it down and look it up later.”

“Smart man.”

“I try.”

She giggled in her seat, and he grinned at her. 

“But seriously, was there anything big that’s really put you through a loop?”

“I guess…not so much a physical thing, but more an idea. Back in the war, it was almost a black and white mentality, good versus evil, right and wrong. We were good, they were evil, throw the good guys at the bad guys and say ‘Go get ‘em men! They’ll get what’s coming to them!’ In some ways, it was easier. All I needed was a bad guy to punch, and that was that.”

“But now it’s not that easy.”

“No, it’s not. Now, the black and white come with varying shades of grey, and sometimes it’s very hard to determine what shade belongs under black, and what belongs under white. Sometimes there is no right or wrong, or something is a little right and a little wrong. Even SHIELD, with all its overtures of being the good guys, there are things that they do, attitudes that they have that aren’t as right as they could be.”

“Tell me about it. They stole all of Jane’s work and her equipment, and when they gave it back, they gave it back with a very long leash. Then they wouldn’t even pick up the phone when London was happening. They turn up after the fact all ‘Oh, yes, it was all under control the whole time.’Under control my ass. And Thor told us about those ‘Phase 2’weapons. Complete assholes.”

“Well…you’re not wrong. Some of them are okay, just doing what they’re told. It’s the ones that are giving the orders that I don’t trust. And I don’t think I’m the only one.”

“I don’t think you are either. Stark keeps a weather eye on them when he can. Jane doesn’t trust anyone over there with anything more involved than a paperclip.”

“Natasha…Agent Romanov, she used to trust them. But now, I think there’s something happening out there that’s got her riled up.”

“Hmm…when in doubt I’d follow her gut. I haven’t met the woman, and she’d probably terrify me if I did, but...if Thor and Stark’s stories are true, she’s one badass woman.”

“That she is. She’s not so terrifying though, not when you get to know her.”

“She can still kill a man with her thighs. The only thing my thighs have ever been good for is filling out pants.”

“I’m sure that that’s not all they’re good for.”

It was a salacious comment, in that it was also so very innocent. If it wasn’t for the grin that went with it, she might have ignored it. Instead, she laughed and pretended to be shocked.

“Why Captain Rogers, was that a suggestive comment I just heard?”

“Might have been, doll, might have been. I’m not as apple pie as they’ll have you believe.”

Darcy brought her laughter short, largely because he was parking the car at the bakery that he was bringing her to, but also because it was extraordinarily weird that he called her ‘doll’ Nicknames had never bothered her, and she’d had her fair share over the years, but, he wasn’t the first person to call her ‘doll’ The only other person who had, had left her in Greece four months ago. Coincidences, she knew, happened every day whether you believed in them or not. They just weren’t usually so weird. 

She masked her moment of weird by peering out the window at the shop front. It looked delicious even from inside the car fifteen feet away, and she said as much. 

Steve grinned at her as he got out of the car. 

“You asked for cake, your wish is my command. C’mon, it’s early yet, there won’t be much of a line.”

* * * 

Steve had been pleased to find that Moretti’s still existed. As kids, he and Bucky used to run errands for old man Moretti in exchange for a treat, usually cannoli. Sometimes he’d try out new recipes on them, always a resounding success. 

Maria Moretti had been a year or so older than Bucky, and she had taken over the bakery when her father passed away during the war. Before Steve signed on for Project Rebirth, she had been expecting a baby and working like mad in the bakery. She kept things together, between the bakery and what money her husband was able to send her from overseas. 

Her granddaughter Emily was in her early twenties and Emily’s mother was semi-retired from working at the bakery, although she would come in to work the storefront. Steve had talked with her about his memories of Maria, though he’d had to pose them as stories that his grandfather told. 

Today it was the other girl working the front, a college student whom Darcy apparently found an instant kinship with. She was poring over the cases like a kid in a candy store, and debating the virtues of one concoction over another with the other girl. 

Steve was strangely glad that he’d brought her here. Brooklyn held a lot of memories, some good, some not so good, but they were all a part of who he was. There were days when it felt like no one remembered who he really was. Sharing this little piece of his history with someone felt good, like he wasn’t quite so forgotten anymore. 

“Steve! Look at this cake! It’s so gorgeous it’s almost a crime against art to eat it.”

She had her nose pressed up against the glass in front of a layer cake that really did look like a work of art. In the blink of an eye she’d moved on to a selection of cupcakes and was exclaiming over the flavours.

“Okay. Mama wants a piece of that and a dozen cannoli to take back home. Steve, what do you want?”

“Oh, you don’t have to…u8221 

“Pfft. You shared, and you drove. Since the car belongs to Stark, and he lets you drive ‘em for nothing, the least I can do is buy you cake. Or a cookie, or a pastry, whatever.”

She reached out and dragged him closer to the glass so he could look at the selection. In the end, he settled for a slice of the same cake she was having, a nice fat slice of a french vanilla cake that was topped with heaps of icing and big fat roses, just as she described. 

"She says it's a good choice." Darcy nodded at the girl behind the counter, who nodded with a wide smile and rang them up. 

Steve tried to be the gentleman, it just didn't sit right, letting her pay for everything. But she glared at him in a way that suggested all sorts of horrible things would happen to him if he continued to try and pull out his wallet, so he decided to leave it alone. There would be other battles to fight. He gestured to a table, insisting at least that he carry their purchases over. Darcy sunk into the leather booth was a sigh that was pure bliss, and reached eagerly for her cake.

The noise she made when she put the first bite in her mouth was downright sinful, and he had to smile. 

"Oh my god, Steve. This is perfect." 

He took a bite of his and agreed.

"They still use the old recipes. This has been a Moretti classic forever. It was one of the first 'new' recipes that Mr. Moretti tried to make." 

"Awesome. I am eating a piece of American history. And the icing is perfect. I may never eat cake from anywhere else again." 

"Tell me about working for Dr. Foster." He asked her. She swallowed her cake and grinned.

"Oh, it has been the most exciting fluke of all time."

"Fluke?" 

"Sure. I told you before that I took the internship to get my science credits. Well, I applied for it because it looked more exciting than posting campaign flyers like my mother wanted me to do. Also, the only requirements were 'an advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel, ability to lift 20 pounds and experience driving a van. I worked a summer delivering flowers, I can totally rock a van." She took another bite, punctuated by another blissful noise. "What she failed to mention was that the van was a Millenium Falcon wannabe of cobbled together equipment. Wait, do you know what that is? Have you seen Star Wars yet?" 

"It was on my list. Tony sat me down and made me watch them all in one go." 

"Bravo Stark! All of them, or just the good ones? Did they have Harrison Ford or Ewan McGregor?"

"Uh...Harrison Ford, I think. He said they were the 'originals'. He also said the prequels were --"

"Shit." She finished for him with a knowing smile. "Yeah, the general consensus was that Lucas sold out on those, favouring fancy special effects over decent storytelling. The only really good parts were Ewan McGregor channeling Sir Alec Guinness, the BAMF Jedi that kinda looks like Fury, just with two eyes, and the one chick who is totally Jane's twin. We nerds still went and shelled out good money to see 'em in theatres. It kinda says a lot about geek culture. Anyway...so it turned out that no one else was brave enough to put in for six months in the desert with an astrophysicist, because I was the only one who applied for the spot, and I actually got it. Good thing, really, because I don't think an actual scientist would have been able to do it properly." 

Steve was a little befuddled by that statement. Darcy was certainly a smart, capable woman but surely another scientist would have been able to do whatever it was that she did.

"I know what you're thinking, and sure, a physicist or any other scientist would have been able to talk binary stars with her until their faces turned blue, but they wouldn’t be able to switch her off. She's still human, she needs to eat, sleep and actually be human on occasion, or the science part of her brain stops working properly. Me? I could give a shit about particles and the laws of physics that they follow, so I will make her stop and be normal for a couple of hours to recharge her batteries. If she'd had another scientist out there with her, they'd still be chasing storms."

"I didn't think about like that. I guess that's how you two work so well together." 

She smiled fondly.

"She's also a really good friend. She gets annoyed at me sometimes, but she wouldn't have left me behind. SHIELD wanted to hire me after Thor landed in the desert. Said I had good instincts and had the kind of 'computer' skills that they like. You can read that as 'Fuck, she can hack shit, we better hire her so she doesn't try to hack us'. SHIELD both makes me angry and freaks me out, and personally I don't really relish the idea of working for people that piss me off and scare me. Jane argued them out of it, told them she wasn't agreeing to anything unless I came with her." 

"That takes a certain amount of guts." 

"Jane has more guts than is good for her sometimes. But this worked in her favor, and mine. You know, it's funny, my mom thinks that I'm wasting my time and missing out on a bunch of opportunities, but the most awesome job in the world could knock on my door and tell me that I would get paid millions for doing nothing but shit that I like to do, and I would still follow Jane through the universe instead. She's my friend." 

Steve understood that feeling. He would have done anything for Bucky, and it still hurt that he hadn't been able to save him. 

"I get that. The friend that I grew up with, we were like that. We'd have followed each other to the end of the world."

"What happened?" 

"There was a mission. He didn't make it." 

Darcy reached across the table and touched his arm gently.

"I'm sorry." 

He tried to shrug it off, he didn't really want to talk about Bucky. 

"It was a long time ago..." 

But she shook her head, and the look she gave him was almost fierce. 

"No it wasn't. Not to you. You've been out of the ice for what? A year, eighteen months maybe? For you, it wasn't 'a long time ago'. You don't get over losing someone you love in two years. Sometimes you never get over it, not if you were close." 

In the time that he'd been out of the ice, all anyone had told him was 'well, you're in the future now, everything you knew is gone. Better get used to it.'. No one had actually thought to recognize that it wasn't all gone for him, it was all still in his head. He wasn't seventy years removed from his own experiences, they were all still fresh. It was a remarkably simple concept. 

Darcy didn't move her hand, just squeezed his arm until he acknowledged what she said. 

"I suppose."

"Suppose. Look, it's easy for me to say I get it, but the truth is I only have my own experiences to go by, and they're probably nothing like yours. I lost my dad when I was teenager, and it still hurts sometimes, when I remember him. But I try to remember the good things about him, and try to live my life like he would have wanted me to. That's why I'm here, and not married off to some small town 'good boy' like my mother wants. What I'm saying is that it's okay to still feel your friend's death, it's okay that it still hurts. But, you also have to think about what he would have wanted you to do with your life, and look for a way to honour that."

Her fierce look melted into something a little more gentle, and she took her hand back and finished her cake. When she looked back up at him, she was smiling again. 

"So, Steve. Are the Muppets on your list? Because if they're not, they should be, and I just happen to have a DVD set in my suite that's been waiting a while for me to dig it out again, and after I make sure Jane has eaten, I'm free this afternoon." 

He had no idea what the Muppets were, but he was more than willing to spend the afternoon watching them with her. 

 

* * * 

"So...I heard that you and Steve have been going out on dates." Jane had a teasing glint in her eye that Darcy didn't like. It meant that not only was Jane in a rare 'girl talk' mood, but she was also in an "I'm a scientist, but I can scheme like the best high school goody goody busy body there is' kind of a mood, and both of these together was generally very dangerous. Especially since Darcy was pretty much Jane's only girlfriend and the only person that she could scheme about. 

"What? Where did you...there is no dating going on here. I invited him to watch cartoons because I didn't feel like being by myself and he looked kind of lonely. We just got to know each other a bit, that's all." 

"Did you have a good time?" 

"Well, duh. It was three hours of Looney Tunes and pizza, there is no way that either of these could result in a bad time." 

"Then it could be considered a date." 

"It was not a date! What is this, high school? We're just friends. I think. I don't know, it's not like I set out to make friends with the Avengers, and he's hard to read sometimes. He didn't hate it anyway, and he let me convince him to take me out for cake, so I think we can say we're friends." 

"Cake?"

"I'm pregnant. I obey the cravings. Only my big idea may have backfired, because I'm pretty sure that the next time I want cake, the only cake that will do is going to be that cake from that bakery, and I may be whiny and unpleasant if he's not around to take me there, because there's no way I'm going to remember how to find it again." 

"Are you going to be seeing him again?"

"Well, I asked him back to watch some Muppets, the poor dude hasn't been exposed to the Muppets yet and -- it is not a date! Stop it." 

Jane smirked at her over the top of a data readout and Darcy put down her pencil.

"Jane. I know that deep down inside you there's a hopeless romantic screaming to be heard amid the formulas and data configurations. But it would be put to better use than trying to convince me that a man like Steve Rogers is going to want anything to do with me and all my baggage." She pointed down at her belly, at four and a half months, still not looking definitely pregnant, but enough that people were telling her congratulations with that look on their faces like they were hoping that they hadn't just made a horrible mistake. Jane's eyes went serious and she put down her printouts.

"That's your mother talking, Darcy. You know that that's all bullshit." 

"Yes, I know that. But that still doesn't mean that he wants to get involved with me. He's barely been in this century a year, he's got other things to worry about besides some pregnant chick who's moved into the Tower that he happens to stay in when he's not off doing Avengery things." 

"I don't think those missions are Avengers missions, I think those are SHIELD assignments."

"Whatever. The point is, he's got enough of his own stuff to worry about, he doesn't need to be worrying about me too. We're just going to be friends. Now, that is a sandwich, eat it or I will tell Thor that you're not eating, and he'll come up here with an entire picnic and MAKE you eat. I am leaving, I have a DVD set and a super soldier waiting on me." 

"I'd make a crack about precautions, but it's kind of a moot point." 

"Jane."

"Alright, alright. Just friends, I got it."


	4. Just Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony Stark is either trying to bribe her, or mother her. If it's the latter, it's incredibly sweet. It's just too bad that he cancels it out by being a pain in her ass.  
> Also, 5th Avenue maternity stores are both scary and awesome.

Chapter 3

 

Stark wandered into the labs one afternoon, looking mildly lost. Darcy was in the middle of tabulating some of Jane’s spreadsheets so she ignored him.

“Foster in here?” Darcy shook her head. “Where’d she go?” Darcy shrugged. Thor had come in about an hour previously and had carted her away. It had been extremely funny, what with the way that the scientist had squealed when he practically tossed her over his shoulder.

“Fine, fine. So…you’re pregnant, huh?”

Darcy finally pulled her eyes from the computer screen and stared at him.

“So, you’re Tony Stark, huh?”

“Huh?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought we were having a ‘state the obvious’ contest. I wasn’t sure who was winning.”

Stark grinned at her.

“I like you, you’re snarky. A bit young to be so pointy around the edges though.”

Darcy rolled her eyes at him and carefully saved the file she was working on, making sure that it saved both to the internal and to the external drives, and then to the flash drive for good measure. After their experiences with SHIELD, Jane always wanted to have several copies of her work.

“Don’t have to be a senior citizen to have had experiences, Stark.”

“Mm, true. Yours can’t possibly be as sobering as mine.”

“I dunno, I think anyone who’s survived an alien invasion could give you a run for your money. And hey, I've survived two, if you count the Destroyer, which I totally do. What do you want, anyway? Last I checked, Jane was pissed at you for sticking your fingers in her machines.”

“Oh, you know, I’m just taking a break, thought I’d come down and see how you ladies were settling in…”

“Translation: You’ve been kicked out of your lab, and Dr. Banner hasn’t let you into his since you ‘accidentally’ set fire to his experiment. A fire, I will remind you, that should have been impossible.”

No one, not even Dr. Banner, had been able to figure out how Stark had managed to set fire to an experiment that was entirely comprised of liquids, none of which were particularly flammable.

“I put it out.”

“Yes, of course you did. Because alcohol works so well as an extinguisher.”

“He shouldn’t keep it in unlabeled containers.”

“Uh huh.”

“Fine, you win. Pepper installed an instruction for JARVIS to shut down my lab when I’ve been in there for twenty four hours straight. I’m exhausted as fuck, but if I go to bed now, Pepper will kill me when I get up at two in the morning and start disassembling her clock radio. And she'll also withhold sex. Potentially indefinitely.”

Darcy sighed and shut down her terminal, after she sent the file to print.

“So you decided to come and grace us with your presence. That’s sweet. It’s too bad that Jane has banned you from touching anything when she’s not here to fix what you break.”

“I think I may be offended.”

“I think I don’t care.”

He eyed her speculatively, a shrewd smile on his face.

“You don’t like me very much, do you?”

She returned the look.

“I don’t _not_ like you, Stark. Frankly, the idea that I would ever share living space with you never occurred to me before November. Before that, you were a face on a magazine cover, a news story, at least that's what you were to me.”

“You don’t know me.”

“No. And up to right now, all you do is make Jane angry, so you’ll have to forgive me if I side with my boss.”

“I get it. I’d keep me at arms length too.”

“I’ll get used to you eventually, don’t worry. My life has changed a lot, I try to be prepared for everything, but it doesn’t always happen.”

“Were you prepared for that?” He waved at her belly and she laughed.

“No. No, I was not. And this is also not helping with getting used to things around here. How do you find a status quo when your own body keeps changing all the time?”

Stark looked thoughtful.

"I guess I can understand a little of what that's like. I mean, not about babies and stuff, but your body being different. Mine was just trying to kill me for a while, not create new life."

Darcy blinked.

"Yes...that is a little bit different."

She let him muse a bit while she closed down the rest of Jane's computers, since it was highly unlikely that Thor would be letting her back anytime today. Eventually, he shook his head and grinned at her.

"I've heard about pregnancy hormones, is any of that true?" He waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively, and she snorted at him.

"You're a total pig, Stark."

"I know it. But is it true?"

Darcy sighed, and smirked at him.

"Actually, yes. I'm highly emotional at the best of times, and I'm horny as fuck."

"Awesome."

"Yeah, well, it would be if I had someone to service my needs, but alas..."

"You mean you're not boinking Rogers?"

"No! Did you just seriously say 'boinking'? Are you twelve?"

"Eh. 'Fucking' just seems too crude a term for Rogers."

"Oh yes, because asking me if we're sleeping together isn't crude at all."

"Nope, that's called gossiping."

"Wow. You're really secretly a teenage girl, aren't you? Did Jane put you up to this, because I've already had this conversation, and I'm not having it again."

"Nah...Foster gets all her gossip from me."

"Oh my god, I am back in high school again. Steve and I are not sleeping together. We're just becoming friends, that's all."

"Uh huh. And I'm the Virgin Mary."

"Stark."

"Fine, fine. You keep your secrets woman, but if you're not boning him you're both missing out, in my opinion."

"Yeah, well, you can shut up because no one asked for your opinion. Why are you so interested in pregnant sex anyway? You got some weird fantasy involving making a bunch of mini-Potts'?"

"Now, why wouldn't you say a 'bunch of mini-Starks'?"

"Do you really think that Pepper Potts is gonna raise a bunch of mini-Starks? She may let you have one to corrupt with exposure to the bowels of a machine shop slash lab, but she'll keep the rest and they'll be an army of terrifyingly competent MBAs."

"That's...scary, and probably entirely accurate. If kids end up being in the cards for us. We're not exactly spring chickens you know."

Darcy patted his arm.

"Maybe, but there's still time. If you want it badly enough, there are options."

"Yeah, I suppose." He looked contemplative, and she grinned at him.

"C'mon Stark, Jane will murder me if I leave you alone in here, and I'm hungry."

"That one is true too, huh?"

"Oh my god yes. Feed me, Stark. I'm in the mood for pizza with loads of olives."

"You are a girl after my own heart. JARVIS, tell everyone it's pizza night and put in an order to the usual place. Get two with extra olives."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

After that day in the labs, Stark seemed to decide that in addition to being Jane's lab monkey, she was also his assistant. She didn't ask for more to do, or even for him to start sending her shit, but suddenly she was getting emails about appointments, had access to his personal calendar, and he kept coming to her and whining about just about everything that wasn’t related to something that was going on in his lab. She was surprisingly good at actually getting him to do things that he didn’t want to do.

“Here Lewis, have some water. Sit, why are you always standing? Isn’t standing all day bad for preggos? Something about swollen ankles?”

“Shut up, Stark. What are you doing here?”

“I’m avoiding a meeting.”

“Get out and go to your meeting Stark.”

“It’s going to be boring.”

“I don’t care. Thanks for the water, go to your meeting or you’re going to get in trouble.”

“I own the company, who’s going to get me in trouble?”

“If you don’t know the answer to that by now, you’re not as smart as I thought. If Miss Potts doesn’t kill you, I will. Get out. And put on a suit!” She yelled after him when he left grumbling.

She did notice something odd though, whenever he came whining, he always brought her something. The first times it was water, or tea. The next few times, he brought her food. Once, he brought in an obus forme for her chair because, quote: 'I read that pregnancy does a number on your back'. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to bribe her, or if he trying to mother her. If it was the latter, it was highly amusing, and extremely sweet. Even if he usually cancelled it out by being a pain her ass.

She drew the line though, when he came in with designs for a ‘preggo-assist’ robot. At least, that was the name he’d put on the thing. Apparently it was a robot he was trying to build to make doing things easier for pregnant women. Things like, lifting and carrying, fetching items and apparently he was trying to build in functions like appointment reminders. She supposed that some women may have fouund it useful, but she prided her independence a little too much.

She had stared at him for a full minute before she told him in a few choice words why she thought it was a bad idea, and she only let him leave the room after he swore up and down that he would shelve the idea. Take away the few things that she can still do without  
Jane throwing a conniption fit? Not happening.

She was still surprised though, when the invite to lunch came in from Pepper Potts. She had met her of course, when they had first moved in, and she had come in a couple of times to do what Stark should have been doing instead of complaining, making sure that they were doing alright and the lab facilities met with their expectations. But lunch was not something she expected. At least, not by herself, she would have gone along with Jane if asked, but she would never have expected an invite to her personally, and not on her own.

She went though, leaving Jane under the same equipment that she had been working on for the last two weeks, and met the woman at a very swanky restaurant that she felt mildly underdressed for. The rest of the patrons were all exactly like Miss Potts, dressed for business meetings in sharp suits and ties, and all of the women were wearing stilettos that made her feet hurt just thinking about them. She had long given up on heels. She disliked them at the best of times, and it was worse now that she was pregnant.

The hostess greeted her with a polite smile, behind which Darcy read very plainly: 'Explain now little girl, I have burly busboys ready to escort you out'. Next time she met anyone for lunch, she was going to suggest the cafeteria.

“Yeah, hi, I’m meeting Pepper Potts for noon?” She told her, she wasn’t sure if she was early or not, or if there was a reservation or anything, but the hostess only smiled wider and beckoned for her to follow her further into the restaurant. The table was in the back, in a quiet spot, and Miss Potts stood to greet her with a warm smile.

“Hello Darcy, I’m glad you could make it.”

“Hello, Miss Potts. Thank you for inviting me.”

“Oh, call me Pepper, please. Sit, I have something I’d like to discuss with you.”

That sounded mildly ominous, and Darcy tried not to make a face.

“Okay…”

“It’s nothing bad, I promise.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

Pepper folded her hands in front of her and gave her an appraising eye.

“How do you feel about being Tony’s assistant?”

“Uh…as in how do I feel about him suddenly deciding that this was a thing?”

“More about how you feel about it being an official thing. We’d like to give you a job.”

“I already have a job.” It was a glorified intern's position, and it paid shit, but it was technically a job.

“Yes, technically you work for SHIELD, they pay you and then bill us. We think that we can offer you a better arrangement. We’ve cleared it that as long as you adhere to your NDAs you can seek employment wherever you wish, though a position with Stark Industries would be preferable, in their opinion. So, I’d like to know what your thoughts are on that.”

“Well…it’s not like it’s an impossible amount of work, at least so far. I have no illusions about what being Tony Stark's assistant for real would be like. Him coming in and whining at me every other day is a bit of a pain…”

“Yes, I know what that’s like. But his attendance at meetings has actually been better since he start whining to you. He's even paying attention.”

“You mean he actually goes to those after I kick him out of Jane's lab?”

“Yes, he does, interestingly. He told me the last time that you threatened him with an axe."

"It was just a hatchet. From the emergency fire rescue kit that the health and safety guy made me recite the location and contents of." Darcy wasn't sure if detailing exactly how she'd threatened Pepper's man was going to earn her any favours, but she was an honest person, she'd admit it when someone called her out on her threats.

"Still. You've got an edge on him, you're unpredictable, so he's hedging his bets on doing what you say. It's highly entertaining, please keep it up, even if you don't take the job.”

“You two are weirdly perfect for each other, aren't you?”

“Thank you, I think that's the nicest thing anyone's said about us in a while. I think the last compliment we had was my mother telling me that as men go, I could do worse. She also may have mentioned something about breeding good looking egotistical maniacs."

The face that she made had Darcy snickering into her water glass.

"Your mom one of those 'hurry up and make me grandbabies, you don't need a career!' type women?"

"You could say that."

"Mine too. I hope you don't mind, but I told Stark that you'd raise a small army of MBAs."

Pepper laughed heartily.

"You're probably right. But I'd raise them, not an army of supernannies."

"Am I really having a conversation about babies with Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries? Because if I'm not I may need to have someone take me to the hospital."

"You are. And it's fun. But back to the subject...what do you think?"

Darcy sighed. It was a good offer.

“I’m not sure that I want to leave Jane.”

“You won’t have to. You can continue your work with Dr. Foster, and work as Tony’s assistant at the same time. We can set you up with your own space in between their labs, that way you can do what you need to, and they can find you as needed.”

“You want to give me my own office? Seriously?”

“And I think we can offer a better pay grade.”

Pepper slid a folder across the table to her, which contained an offer of employment. Darcy would swear that her eyes did a Roger Rabbit when she saw the salary.

“You want to give me that, just to babysit Tony Stark?”

“I have personal experience with the role. Believe me, an argument can be made that it’s not enough. Anything can and probably will happen. And we’re factoring in the work you’ll continue with Dr. Foster.”

Darcy closed the folder and sipped at her water again. A waiter came and took their order, disappearing again in a flurry of smiles and promises that their lunch would be on its way shortly.

“Jane has been dialing back the amount of stuff I’m allowed to do. I’m not allowed in the testing areas, I’m not allowed to be within three feet of her machines, I can’t carry any of the equipment, blah blah…”

“She’s just looking out for you.”

“I know. I don’t know that Stark’s lab is going to be any less dangerous, but at least I won’t be in danger of portals to other worlds opening up around me. Plus, my own office isn’t in the way of potential explosions.”

“I can at least promise that he won’t ask you put his arc reactor back into his chest.”

“That’s a small comfort. Alright, I’m in. Where do I sign?” She opened up the folder again and read through everything, noting that with the pay grade also came her own access to the company motor pool, as well as an excellent Benefits plan and a 401K.

“Excellent. I guess you’ve already started, but you’ll officially start on Monday.”

“Jane will still be on SHIELD’s payroll though?”

“Yes…but we’re working on that.”

“Good. She hates them.”

“It’s a common sentiment, I believe. Tony doesn’t trust them. Now, there was something else, now that you’ve officially accepted this position, you are going to need at least a couple of more professional outfits.” Darcy raised her eyebrows at her, but she continued. “I realize that for you this isn’t going to be as simple as hitting up Anne Klein, but there is a place on 5th Avenue that should have exactly what we need.”

“What are you proposing?”

“I’m taking the afternoon off. Let me take you shopping.”

Darcy stared at her in disbelief.

"Shopping. You want to take me shopping. Why?"

"Two reasons: One, I need an afternoon of normal human contact."

"And two?"

"Two, you're not the only one that Tony's been annoying lately. Spending money always makes makes me feel better. Especially his money."

“Uh…okay.”

* * *

“Oh my god, what is this place? They’re not going to scan me and reject me because of my income bracket, are they?”

Darcy was still halfway out of Pepper Potts’ car, and couldn't make herself get out the rest of the way, the store was way out of her league. The other woman came around and held the door open for her.

“Of course not. It’s a boutique, and even if such an insane practice existed, you’re here with me, and my Stark Card can definitely get us in.”

Darcy balked again.

“I don’t know about this, Miss – Pepper. I’m not really a boutique kind of girl. I’m more of a thrift girl, I tend to be more at home in aisles of used clothes than in a mirrored change room.”

Pepper smiled indulgently at her.

“I know that. You deserve a little pampering though, so it’s my treat. I know Tony can be difficult.”

“Uh yeah. By the way, when did he decide that I was going to be his assistant anyway?”

“Around the time you told him you liked olives on your pizza.”

Darcy snorted.

“I dunno, I’m still not sure about going in there. I feel a little like an imposter.”

Pepper drew her out of the care and gently guided her towards the entrance.

“You’re not an imposter.”

“Yeah, only in that I’m not impersonating a pregnant lab assistant. I don’t feel comfortable with this.”

Pepper nodded and stepped in front of her.

“I understand you’re a little out of your element. But you’re not an imposter, you have every right to be where you are, doing what you’re doing. But, if you’re really uncomfortable, I’ll make you a deal. Try on one or two outfits. If you like them, we’ll call them a signing bonus. If you don’t, we’ll go to a thrift store and go crazy.”

Darcy considered it. The store looked gorgeous. It wouldn’t hurt to try something on, would it? Not really. And if nothing looked good, it wasn’t like she had to get anything.

“Okay. Two outfits. And if they don’t work, we go look somewhere else.”

Pepper grinned at her,linked their arms (as much as she could given that Darcy was so much shorter than she was), and led her into a boutique maternity store that was well out of Darcy’s preferred price range.

* * *

It turned out that Darcy enjoyed boutique shopping more than she thought she would. As soon as they realized just who was looking to spend money in their store, they were suddenly whisked off to a private room and provided with snacks and drinks while sales girls

brought Darcy pieces to try on.

It felt weirdly like the Rodeo drive montage scene in Pretty Woman, and Darcy found that hilarious. Especially since her ‘sugardaddy’ was Pepper Potts.

She was glad now that she’d agreed to this. No one knew high fashion like Pepper, it seemed, even for maternity wear. She had a practiced eye for colours that complemented skin and hair tones, as well as styles that flattered shapes.

Granted, Darcy’s shape at the moment was a little curvier than normal, but that was why this was a maternity store.

“Alright, you win. I admit that this was a good idea.” She said to Pepper as she admired her figure in the three way mirror. She’d moved on from business wear to casual wear somehow, and she was in love with these jeans.

Pepper smiled at her.

“I thought you’d change your mind. Every woman deserves clothes that she feels nice in.”

“I’m still suffering sticker shock though.”

“Signing bonus, don’t worry about it. Besides, this is nothing compared to what Tony will spend when he decides he needs to upgrade his wardrobe. Or mine, for that matter.”

Darcy grinned and admired her backside once more before she stepped away and headed back to the change room.

“Okay, but I’m not getting everything. Just the business clothes and these jeans, I still have plenty of leggings and loose shirts.” She would go with Jane to her preferred thrift store in a few weeks to stock up on tops. Pepper’s eyes danced.

“What about the dress?”

The sales girl had brought in an extremely pretty dress that had looked perfect on her, it was exactly her style and she really, really wanted it.

“I don’t want to take advantage.”

“You’re not taking advantage. Tony’s the one who’s going to be trying to take advantage of you.”

“You’re really good at talking people into things.”

“That’s how I got here.”

“I will absolutely believe that. Fine, I love that dress, let’s get it.”

Pepper's eyes danced at her.

"Captain Rogers will like the dress too, I'd wager."

This time, Darcy did make a face.

"Why is everyone assuming that Steve and I are seeing each other?"

Pepper blinked at her.

"Aren't you?"

"No. We're just friends. I haven't even seen him this week, he's been in Washington, or on a mission, or something." Darcy went into her changing cubicle and pulled on her own clothes.

"It might not be such a bad idea you know. He's very good looking."

"Yes, I'm aware. I'm pretty sure that the whole country is aware."

"I think you two would be good together. He certainly likes you."

"We're just friends. Did Stark put you up to this? If I have this conversation one more time, I think I may actually do violence. I'm going to post on the intranet 'Steve and I are just friends'."

Pepper laughed.

"Point taken. Still, I wouldn't count it out. I think you've been good for him so far. He seems to be relaxing."

Darcy came out of the changing room with her bag looped over her shoulder, and the jeans in hand. The rest of her chosen items were already at the front of the store being 'held' for them. Pepper was standing, purse in hand.

"What was he like? Before we came, I mean. He's been pretty laid back around me so far."

Pepper offered her a smile.

"When I first met Steve Rogers, he shook my hand, called me 'Ma'am', and 'Miss Potts' and was not comfortable being here. I think he'd only been conscious for a few months at that point, and there had been a battle that just about leveled parts of Manhattan. He's been getting better, slowly. I think he's still trying to find a place in the world. A place that he's comfortable with, not one that the world has shoved him into."

Darcy had thought something very similar, both about Steve and about herself.

"I guess that's something we have in common then."

"I think that's something that a lot of people have in common. Are you ready to head back?"

"Yeah. Jane will emerge from her lab any time now wondering what happened to her pop-tart, and she'll wreck a day's work before she remembers that she ate it hours ago."

* * *

The following Monday, Darcy was supervising as two IT techs set up her desk so that she could connect her laptop and/or tablet to a larger monitor, and the guy from the stock room was putting a pair of filing cabinets against the door. Jane was asleep, she thought, it was either that or she and Thor were still at it, but she wasn't going to go there. Stark had been by to shake her hand and leave her a danish, and a footrest that he'd created especially for her using a stool and a massaging backrest so that she could have something to massage her feet. Something that he'd also read about. She was starting to get a little weirded out by how much Stark was reading up on pregnancy, and was considering warning Pepper that he may start talking about biological clocks.

She saw Steve when he crossed her doorway, and had to smother giggles when he backed up and peered around the doorframe.

"Darcy? What's going on? I was just on my way to the lab to find you for lunch."

"Apparently Tony and Pepper are out of their minds, because they've hired me to be Tony's assistant. I get my own office and everything."

"Uh...didn't his last assistant run screaming out the door? Tony was showing that video clip for weeks."

"I'm a risk taker, what can I say. I still get to work with Jane, but now I have another crazed scientist to look after, it's going to be fun. Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

Steve had been looking her up and down, and if she didn't know him at least a little, she would swear that he was checking her out. Or maybe he was, and she didn't know him as well as she

wanted to believe she did. Two marathons and cake weren't exactly a lifelong kind of thing. He looked up at her face and actually blushed as he gave her a soft smile.

"Oh..sorry. It's just that...you look different."

"Different how?"

"I don't know...you just look different. It's nice, I like it, I'm just trying to figure out what it is..." She was wearing one of the outfits from the maternity store, a pair of dress pants and a suit jacket that actually fit, and made her look nice. She turned and modeled for him.

"Do you like it? Pepper took me shopping at this maternity boutique. It's nice to have clothes that actually fit me."

"Oh...of course, that's what it is. I mean...you always look nice, but now you look..."

"I look fantastic. I know, that's why I let her buy them for me. But, thank you. I don't get a lot of compliments."

"Well, that's just a tragedy, isn't it. I'll have to rectify that."

Darcy didn't have a response for that, just a warm smile. Steve looked at the men still working on her space.

"Looks like these guys are going to be while, are you hungry?"

"I'm always hungry."

"You want lunch? My treat, since you bought cake?"

"Dude, cake and lunch are not equal."

Steve shrugged, and she grinned.

"Lead the way, mon capitan."

She followed him out the door, and a little voice in the back of her head whispered that she should have worn the dress.


	5. Of Boxing rings and Party things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy takes Steve shopping, Steve teaches her how to box, and there's a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many many thanks to the amazing SarahOl1 for betaing these monster chapters, it's been a mutually beneficial relationship to date, I get the best feedback in the world and she gets sneak peaks at the story : )

Chapter 4

“Hey Darcy.” Steve greeted as he ducked into her office, neatly avoiding two women who were approaching from the other side of the corridor. Darcy had to bite her lip to stop from laughing when they tried, but ultimately failed at not looking horribly disappointed when they passed by her door. 

“You’re getting pretty good at that.” She commented, setting aside the guest list she was working on for Tony’s Valentine’s party. Anything was better than working on the arrangements for Tony’s Valentine’s party. It was going to be prom-themed, and she’d chucked a tablet at his head when she found out. Unfortunately, as the previous assistant had already started the planning, the decorations and DJ were already ordered and paid for, so she couldn’t change it now. 

“Good at what?” Steve asked, as he settled himself in her one guest chair. It was highly entertaining to watch a 6 foot, 225 pound man fold himself into an office chair that was almost too small even for her to sit in. She’d chosen it so that people wouldn’t want to sit in  
her office for long periods of time, and with the exception of Steve and Thor, it worked. 

“Avoiding the advances of the opposite sex.” She exaggerated her words like a TV documentary narrator, and Steve laughed. 

“I’m not avoiding anyone.”

“Oh no? Those weren’t Dr. Banner’s two interns you were ducking into my office to get away from?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you don't. I dunno, Steve, I think you could give at least one of them a shot. The blonde is pretty, and not entirely vapid, she understands when Bruce talks to her, so she must have something going on up in her head.”

“Don’t you start. Natasha’s been trying to set me up on dates since Christmas, one matchmaker in my life is enough. And besides…I like brunettes.”

Darcy blinked, and decided that she was not going to touch that comment, it was safer that way. She did file it away though, in a “for future reference” box that she deliberately didn’t think about very much. 

She leaned back in her chair and fished out a book from her top drawer. 

“There is something infinitely strange about Agent Romanov trying to set you up on dates. So, are you ready for the next bit?” Steve grinned and shut the door without even getting up from the chair.

“Yes ma’am.”

“ 'In the beginning, the universe was created…' ”

They had started this not long after her office had been set up, all of about a week ago. She’d had the battered copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy sitting out on her desk when he’d stuck his head in at the end of the day. She was rereading it, but when she’d offered to loan it to him, he’d waffled on it. He was clearly interested, especially after she gave him the rundown about the man in his bathrobe and the illustrious guide with the words ‘Don’t Panic’written in large friendly letters on the cover. But, he was far too polite to borrow it while she was using it, even if she had read it so many times that her copy was dog-eared and getting creased. 

His eyes had lit up when she offered to read it to him out loud. It was funnier when you heard it, and since she hadn’t been able to replace the radio play on her ipod (another reason that she disliked SHIELD) this was the next best thing.

Now he stopped in for another section every time he was in the Tower, which for now seemed to be a lot. He loved the book. He very clearly identified with Arthur, an everyman rather lost in a strange new world. Steve was just a different kind of everyman. She supposed that the weather was keeping him in the city, she certainly wouldn’t want to be travelling when there was the threat of snow just about every day.  
He’d told her too that the only reason he’d set up home in Washington was because it was closer to the Triskellion, a SHIELD hub that was apparently the where Fury set up shop when he wasn’t up in the skies. He preferred being in New York because it was familiar, and he had friends here. 

She’d teased him about learning to make new friends, though she could well appreciate that that was a little harder to do when you had almost nothing in common with the people around you.

“What are you doing this afternoon?” He asked when she finished reading a chapter. 

“Ugh, I have to go give final approval on the catering and flowers for the party on Friday.”

She glowered at him when he snickered.

“You’re really not a big fan of this party, are you?”

“What was your first clue, my angry rant or chucking a tablet at Stark’s head?”

“Well, the rant was good, but I think it was definitely the tablet.” Steve had been in the lab with Stark at the time, helping to test something out. He’d caught the thing before it hit the floor and broke, but she’d noted with a certain degree of satisfaction that he’d let it hit Stark before he caught it.

“I get that he probably didn’t get to go to his prom, or didn’t enjoy it, since he was a boy genius or whatever and graduated high school at what? Fifteen or sixteen? I don't care. But, not everyone is super keen on reliving that particular nightmare rite of passage.” Steve looked thoughtful, the kind of look he got when he was thinking about his life before the serum, and she settled to listen. 

“I didn’t have a prom. Back then, it was just before the war, and there just wasn’t any money for any kind of extravagances, not where we lived. There were more well off schools that could still manage something, but they were nothing like the shindigs that go on today.”

“You’ve researched modern day high school proms?”

He shrugged, but his smile was telling.

“I may have looked into it. Since Tony was pretty set on the theme, I didn’t want any surprises. Proms back in my day were really just a big banquet in the school gymnasium. There’d be dancing, but it was a very different kind of dancing. Though, I suppose that I’d have been sitting out most of it. Nobody wants to dance with someone they might step on.”

“It still sounds a thousand times better than my high school prom.”

“Tell me?”

“Ugh. When you’re part of the outcast group of students, anything involving interaction with the rest of the school population is always painful. I didn’t want to go but my mother had gone out and bought this crazy dress, and my friend wanted to go so badly, I went so she wouldn’t be alone. I’m not sure now if it was a good thing that I did or not.”

“What happened?”

“I was uncomfortable all night, because my mom, bless her heart, forgot that I like to eat. She bought a dress that was slightly too small for me, and then my feet started killing me before dinner was even over. The meal was mediocre, the DJ sucked, and Randy McCormack spiked the punch, and not in a good way. I don’t know what he used, or how much, but half the football team was hammered before the king and queen were crowned, and they were loud, lewd and generally just horrible. One of them tried to talk my friend into a bathroom stall with him, and was…insistent. I hit him in the face, and ended up getting detention for a week. Fortunately, he not only also got detention, he ended up getting booted from the team and losing a scholarship, so I felt that justice was served.”

She left out that the friend that she had gone with had chewed her out after everything calmed down. Darcy had stared at her in shock as she’d yelled about missing a chance to ‘get in’with the cool kids because Darcy was over fond of hitting people. Never mind that she’d saved her from being assaulted. Darcy had stopped speaking to her after that. She smiled grimly at Steve, who was staring at her with wide eyes.

“Huh. Sounds like everything that could have gone wrong did.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“Well…maybe this will be better.”

“I doubt it. I still won’t be able to drink the punch.”

She grinned when Steve laughed out loud. She loved it when she could make him laugh. 

“Hey, are you busy this afternoon? I could use some company, most of my food sensitivities have died down, but every once in a while there’s something that sets me off, and sometimes food tastes weird. I could use a second taster.”

“Sure, I’m free. We’ve already had all our meetings.”

“Good. Would you drive? My driver, can you believe that I have a driver? Anyway, my driver is a bit ADHD and is a little too fascinated with the baby bump. Every time I catch him looking at me, I swear he’s thinking about me naked, and it’s creepy.”

Steve frowned deeply.

“You’ve reported him, right?”

“Of course I have. He’s even had a sit down with a few people about being a perv. Problem is; they’re short staffed while Happy Hogan is recovering, so unless he actually does something physical they’re not going to terminate him. This guy is the only driver on call today, the rest are out with various Board members, Pepper or Stark.”

“Tony hasn’t left the building in days.”

“Yes, but he’s still got an assigned driver, should he decide to leave the building. Heaven forbid that his driver not be on hand. I’m working on a shuffle, but it won’t take effect until next week, probably.”

Steve still looked doubtful and endearingly protective, which made her smile.

“C’mon. You can throw him a good Captain America glare, that’ll learn him.”

* * *

As experiences went, tasting food and looking at flowers wasn't exactly thrilling. Listening to Darcy's commentary on it, that was highly entertaining. The caterer was expensive, and the food tasted fine, according to both of their taste palettes, and the flowers were very pretty, all varying shades of red, pink and white. He noticed that Darcy seemed to be particularly fond of the flowers that were a certain shade of dark pink the most, not something that he might have guessed, but since she didn't strike him as a red roses kind of girl, he supposed that it fit. 

"Thanks for coming with me." She said, as she buckled herself into the car. 

“It wasn’t a problem, it was fun."

"Don't lie, it was dull as hell."

"It was still fun. Where to?”

"We should just go back to the Tower, though there's not much left to do there today. Do you trust me?"

"Implicitly."

"You may regret telling me that." She fiddled with the car's GPS unit a moment and then sat back. "Follow the GPS, mon capitan." 

"Yes ma'am!" 

She was quiet as they drove, mostly because she was tapping at a tablet was the kind of fervour he associated with annoyance at Tony, and he suspected she was sending him a rather spectacularly worded email about the food and flowers. Tony had read one of her emails out loud once. He was pretty sure that anyone with a normal job at a regular company would be fired immediately for using some of the language that she used in that message, but Tony had laughed and gave her a new tablet to play with. 

"There, that's where we're going." She pointed out his window as the GPS told them that they had arrived at their destination. Steve parked and looked up at the sign. 

“That…is a thrift store.”

“Yes it is.”

“Why are we going to a thrift store?”

“Because a thrift store is the best place to go shopping for baby clothes, my friend. Allons-y?”

“Bien sur, ma belle.”

“You actually speak French?”

“I’m out of practice, but yes. I learned it in the war. It came in handy, we were in France quite a bit.”

“That’s awesome. Mine is high school level, laughable at best, insulting at worst. That particular gem is actually referencing Doctor Who. Have you been introduced to Doctor Who yet?”

“Er…no, not yet.” The grin that she gave him was positively feral. 

“Oh, my friend. I know what our next marathon is going to be. There’s fifty years of catch up to do just on that show alone, it’s gonna be a marathon to end all marathons.”

“I look forward to it.”

“You should, it’s awesome. Do you know any other languages?”

“Ah…I can speak French and German pretty fluently, Natasha’s been teaching me Russian, and I have a smattering of Italian and Japanese.”

“Japanese?”

“Yeah…one of my men…" 

“Was Japanese, I get it. That’s pretty impressive, you know. There’s not a lot of people these days that can speak that many languages.”

“Well…I was a quick learner, if I’d been more keen on languages in school, I might have been able to learn more. I’m thinking I’d like to learn Arabic next.” 

“I had a friend once that could swear in Dutch, and I thought that was awesome. I can only swear in English. Teach me to swear in Japanese?”

“Sure.”

“Excellent.” She climbed out of the car. 

“So, baby clothes.” He said as he followed her in, and taking the cart that she was trying to manhandle down an aisle. 

“Yep.”

“Aren't you going to do one of those registry things? Miss Potts said something about needing it for baby shower invitations.”

“Oh god, they’re really going to do that to me, aren’t they?” She stuck out her tongue. “I don’t want a big fuss, I keep trying to tell them that. But anyway, yes, Jane's taking me next week to create a registry at some baby store that Pepper found. But, my circle of friends is small, there’s no way that a registry alone will net enough clothes. Babies grow like weeds, you know. I need to have everything in three different sizes just to start with, never mind when the kid gets to be six months old. And what if I have like, a ten pound whopper? Newborn sizes would be a total joke.”

“I don’t think you’re going to have a ten pound whopper.” She was so tiny, he really doubted that the baby was going to be that big. 

“Yeah, but you never know. And that’s why thrift stores are awesome. College life is vastly improved by thrift, I tell you. So does living out of a camper with a crazed astrophysicist. I can get three times the amount of clothes that I would at a department store for the same price, and 95% of the time, it’s as good as new. I’ve found stuff with the tags still on. Plus, it's all supposed to be in support of charities, so I feel better spending my money.”

She pulled out a selection of sleepers and started perusing them. Steve did the same, holding up a couple for approval. 

“Are we avoiding pink?”

“Yes please. I don't necessarily have a problem with pink, and I can rock pink like there's no tomorrow, but I'm not a fan of 'baby' pink. Makes me think of Pepto-Bismol, and that's not a story that I'm going to tell in public."

"Fair enough." He said, setting a the ones that she pointed at into her cart. He wasn't sure that he wanted to know about the Pepto-Bismol, but he was sure that he'd hear it sooner or later. He went back to looking through the rack of tiny sleepers and pants. He felt mildly ridiculous, towering over racks of baby clothes. His hand spanned the entire back of some of the pieces he was looking through, and that sight made him stop and really think after a few moments. Babies were small, fragile, little creatures and she lived in a Tower where things broke and exploded all the time. A tower in a city where they were still cleaning up the damage from an alien attack, and who knew what was coming at them next? 

"Do you ever worry about it being safe?" 

"Hmm? About what being safe?" She asked, looking up from a little two piece outfit with yellow ducks on it. 

"Everything. The tower, with everything that goes on in it, is it going to be safe enough for a baby there?" 

She bit her lip, and eventually shrugged.

"I don't know. It's not ideal, I know. But, it's not like I have anywhere else to go. I can't not live my life because it might not be 'safe'. If I did that, I'd still be living with my mother, Thor forbid. And I know that anything could happen there, and it probably will. But I also know that I live with people who do their best to make sure that everything is safe. And I'll just have to trust that when baby comes, I'm going to be a good enough mom to keep him or her extra safe."

"I think you will be." 

She smiled, and leaned up across the cart to kiss his cheek. 

"Thank you." 

He smiled down at her and held up two sleepers.

"Blue dinosaurs or Orange crocodiles?"

"You ask all the hard questions, don't you?" She laughed. 

* * * 

 

Since extreme weather had forced Steve to put off heading back up to Washington, he was making use of his time at the Tower. The one thing that he really enjoyed about the Tower was the gym. The closest gym he could access at all hours in Washington was a fifteen minute drive away, and often when he was up pacing the floor, the process of going out to work off the frustrations was too bothersome, especially in the winter. Here, if he was up at night, the gym was two floors away. Lately, Thor would join him when he was on Earth, and they'd started learning some of the martial arts that he'd taken a liking to together. Occasionally Barton and Natasha would turn up for sparring rounds. Today though, the Tower was pretty quiet. Tony and Pepper had gone back to Malibu to check on the status of the mansion there, though they'd been in touch. Dr. Banner generally kept to himself, and Barton and Natasha were off on missions. 

There was someone around though, and he smiled when he saw lights on in Darcy's new office. He paused outside the doorway on his way to the gym for a workout. Darcy was in there, standing behind her desk facing the window. Her hands were on her hips, phone in hand and she just looked generally irritated. He knew that Thor and Jane were not in residence, though he wasn't sure where they'd gone to. He'd actually thought that she'd gone with them. 

"Darcy? Are you okay?" 

She jumped, startled, and offered him a wan smile. 

"Hey Steve. I'm fine, just..." she dropped her cell phone into a pocket, "you ever feel like like you're talking to a brick wall?" 

Steve leaned against the doorframe and chuckled. 

"Only every time I try to talk Tony out of something." 

Her eyes brightened and she giggled. 

"He's kind of a stubborn ass, isn't he? I've learned this very quickly." 

"He is. Sometimes all I can hear when he talks is braying." 

She snorted and her eyes danced mirthfully.

"Ooh, you are a bad man, Steve Rogers. I like it." 

"Don't tell anyone, wouldn't want to ruin my reputation." 

"Secret's safe with me." 

As he watched, her smile slipped down again, her mind drifting back to whatever was bothering her. He didn't like it, it was better when she was smiling. 

"That wasn't him on the phone, was it?" If Tony had managed to upset Darcy, for real, he was going to kill him. Tony annoyed the hell out of her, but she really enjoyed that because she got to be just as annoying back at him. It seemed to be the basis of their friendship. To his immense relief, she shook her head.

"No, that was my mother." 

He blinked. He'd noticed some of her comments about her mother had bordered on frustrated, but he had held back on asking her about it, he didn't want to pry into anything she might be uncomfortable talking about. Clearly though, it was a bigger issue than some offhand comments. 

"Do you want to talk about it?" 

She sighed heavily.

"Not really. It's kind of a long story that I don't really want to get into right now. What I want is a distraction." 

"A distraction?" 

"Yeah. Jane and Thor have gone on an overnighter to see Erik, and I wasn't really keen on going back to London, so I stayed here. Now I don't know what to do with myself. I'd watch TV, but I'm too keyed up for sitting on my butt." 

An idea formed in Steve's mind, and it popped out of his mouth before he could think it completely through. 

"You want to learn how to box?" An eyebrow quirked.

"Excuse me?" 

"Boxing. I was going to the gym to go a few rounds with a bag...I find it therapeutic, I could teach you." 

She tilted her head back, considering.

"Are you sure that I can, what with...." She waved vaguely at her belly. Steve shrugged. 

"We'll go easy, and you don't have to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable." 

Her smile returned full force, telling him that this had been the right decision. 

"Okay. Just promise you won't laugh at my sadly underused workout clothes."

"Promise." 

"I'll meet you at the gym in ten then." 

She bounced out of the room with a spring in her step.

* * * 

She appeared in the gym ten minutes later with a grin and her hair up in a ponytail. She was wearing a massive T-shirt that had the emblem of a college on it and a pair of workout pants that said 'JUICY' across her bottom. Not that he was looking at her bottom, at least, on purpose. He still had to bite his lip to keep from laughing, he'd promised after all. 

"You know what is totally awesome?" 

"What's that?" 

"Yoga pants stretch. I may not wear real pants for the next four months." 

Steve blinked. He hadn't thought she was that far along, but it wasn't like he'd really asked that question. 

"Are you really that far along?" 

"Yeah, amazing, isn't it?" 

"You don't look it." He realized rather belatedly that a statement like that could be taken the wrong way, though when he tried to work it out in his head it only confused him, but Darcy just laughed. 

"No, and I won't until somewhere around six or seven months. Evidently, that's when everything pops, according to some of the stuff I've read online." 

"Huh." There didn't seem to be much more to say on the subject, so he moved on. "Right, are you ready?" 

She held up her fists and gave him what he supposed was her best menacing look. It was about as frightening as a vaguely annoyed cat, but it was cute. 

"You bet. Teach me, Obi Wan." 

"I understood that reference." 

She laughed, and he beckoned her over. 

"Okay, gloves first."

"Aw. You mean I don't get to go bareknuckled?" 

"Nope. My hands are more durable than yours." 

He fit the red boxing gloves over her hands and fastened them for her. Then he moved to stand next to her.

“Okay, first thing you need to remember is to always keep your form. Bend your knees a little, and keep your back straight. Your hands, or your guard, come up by your face. Your hands should always come back here after you throw a punch.”

He demonstrated a jab, and she copied the movement, a little jerkily, but that would go away with practice.

“Good. That was a jab, straight out and straight in, keep your elbow soft, don’t snap it, or you’ll hurt the joint.”

She did it again, this time with one arm and then the other, and she grinned up at him.

“Awesome. I feel dangerous. Show me more.”

“Alright, this is a cross.” He demonstrated cross punches. “Aim to the opposite corners of the room, pivot your foot when you cross your arm over the body.” He slowed down to show her the correct form for the pivot, and she dutifully repeated the movement. “Next is the hook. Bend your elbow ninety degrees, and you want to move it like you’re sliding your arm across a shelf, with the same pivot as the cross.”

Her hook was really good, and he said so.

“I was a nerd girl in school, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t defend myself. I told you I punched that football player in the face, I'm pretty sure that it was a right hook. At least, I am now.”

“What about this one?” He showed her an uppercut, which she repeated just as well. “That’s called an uppercut.”

She grinned again.

“I like the uppercut.”

He grinned back and moved in front of her, holding his hands up at chest height.

“Okay, practice. Hit my hands, I’ll tell you which hit to use, see if you can keep up.”

“Okay.”

He put her through ten minutes of practicing the punches on his hands, she kept up with the change in instruction well, and even started hitting him harder before he called time on it. 

“Good! You’d make a great boxer, doll.”

“Ha! That’s me, floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.”

He didn’t get that reference, so he filed it away for later.

“You ready to pound on something a little harder than my hands?”

She saluted him with exaggeration, waving her arm around a few more times than necessary, which seemed to be hilarious to her. 

“Yessir!”

He set up a couple of bags, one for her and one for himself and set her in front of hers.

“Alright champ, have at it. Watch your stance, you may have to move around the bag on cross body punches, and just go at your own pace, okay?”

She saluted again, this time he laughed with her.

 

* * *

 

This was totally awesome. 

Steve was right, pounding the hell out of a giant bag of sand was therapeutic and it was a lot of fun. She was going to have to keep doing this, even after the baby came. Gotta stay fit to keep up with a kid, right? It was definitely helping to vent her frustrations.

She didn’t realize how much time had passed until her stomach growled at her. She stopped and leaned against the bag, sweaty but exhilarated. 

Steve was watching her from the side, a gentle look of concern on his face.

“Better?”

She wiped at her face ineffectually with her still gloved hand. 

“Yeah. That was fun. All I had to do was imagine it was my mother’s face, and it took care of a lot of frustration.” She winced as soon as the words came out of her mouth, and Steve’s face went from concerned to worried. She really hadn’t wanted to get into that bag of fun. “I said it was kind of a long story.”

He pulled her over to sit on a bench, and set about unfastening her gloves.

“It’s obviously bothering you, are you sure that you don’t want to talk about it?”

“I…” Darcy sighed, and accepted a bottle of water that he handed her, drinking a long gulp from it. “My mother and I don’t see eye to eye. Are you sure that you want to hear this? Because I don’t want to be a bother.”

“You’re not a bother, Darcy. You don’t have to tell me anything that you don’t want to. But you should talk to someone.” 

Darcy nodded.

“Okay, but not here, while we’re sweaty and disgusting. And I’m hungry. Let’s get showers, and find something to eat, and I’ll tell you all about the litany of issues I have with my mother, okay?”

Steve nodded.

“Okay. Do you want to go out somewhere for dinner? My treat.” He offered with a small smile. The reluctance to air her dirty laundry in public warred with the desire to not have it recorded somewhere in Stark’s servers. It was completely backward that a table in a restaurant sounded like it would offer more privacy than here in the tower. 

“Deal. Meet you in the garage in half an hour?”

“Done.”

* * *

The restaurant that Steve had in mind was a little hole in the wall diner that had been around since the late sixties. It was reminiscent of the kind of diners that he’d grown up with, regular customers sitting in established seats, pictures and memorabilia all over the walls and good music playing over the speakers. 

The music here was different, but he was starting to learn some of the songs. He could tell that Darcy thought it was charming. 

“Is that guitar signed by Pete Townshend? Oh my god, I am sitting three feet from something a rock and roll legend touched. Shit, is that a signed photograph of Julie Newmar? I may swoon, Steve you’ll catch me if I swoon, right?”

Steve chuckled.

“I’ll catch you doll, don’t worry.” 

“How did you find this place? The established date says it’s after your time.”

“Wandering the city in the first few months after I was…" 

“Defrosted?”

“Yeah. It was quiet and out of the way, just the kind of place I was looking for.”

“It’s awesome. And their food is good?”

“Best I’ve had so far in this century.”

“Excellent. Will you be horrified if I eat one of these ginormous burgers with a bucketload of fries?”

“Not really, since I’m going to eat the same thing.”

“Perfect!”

He waited until after they ordered to remind her of what they’d been talking about. She was having too much fun pointing out the things she found amusing to interrupt her. She was kind of adorable, really. He already knew she was pretty, he’d thought that before he’d started getting to know her. But he liked how the simplest things made her happy, like a bunch of cartoons or a picture on the wall. 

True to her statement, she ordered one of the diner’s burgers with a plate of fries to go with it, and he ordered the same, but with extra bacon.

“So…your mother?”

Her face changed from amused to resigned in the blink of an eye. He'd let her back out if she really didn't want to talk about it, but to her credit, she didn't even try. 

"I will warn you, pregnancy hormones make me kind of a mess, and this is not an awesome story." 

He just leaned forward, giving her his undivided attention. 

"I've said that we didn't see eye to eye. We've never been all that close, but since my dad passed away, we've just gotten further apart. She's like some kind of relic from a bygone era." Steve raised his eyebrows, and Darcy winced, sending him an apologetic look. "Sorry...I didn't mean..." Steve waved it off, he was used to offhand comments like that that, and really, that's pretty much exactly what he was. He was still just learning how to be 'modern'. He said as much, but she just shook her head.

"No, you're head and shoulders above my mother. I know that you've gotten that I am not married, and not attached to anyone in any way, but also having this baby. I figure if you weren't cool with that, we wouldn't be doing TV marathons, and you certainly wouldn't be sitting here listening to me vent after teaching me boxing. My mother on the other hand...she would probably be right at home in the fifties or...the Victorian era. I just...." She shook her head, frustration rolling off her in waves. "I don't get it, she went to college, she's a smart woman. But as soon as she got married, it's like she turned into the greatest housewife ever and totally forgot that independence existed.

"Mom believes that a woman should only work if she has to, and the rest of her focus should be on catching a worthwhile husband. I have no idea where this all came from, because she lived in California in the seventies. She must have had some relative beat it into her head. So, my dad was a civil defense lawyer, when he passed away he left behind a sizeable estate that was split between us. My half went into a trust for me to go to school. There was not enough after settling his estate for us, or her, to live off indefinitely, so she had to go and get a job. Even so, she was always telling me that what I needed was a intelligent, well off man and I would be all set. I fought tooth and nail to go to college out of state so I wouldn't have to deal with that anymore. Anyway, when I told her I was pregnant, the first thing out of her mouth was 'when is the wedding?'." 

Steve knew that he was staring at her with wide eyes, because she cracked a smile when she looked up at his expression. 

"I know, right? Apparently, being unmarried and pregnant is okay in her antiquated book as long as there will be a wedding before the baby arrives. Preferably while a nice fluffy white dress won't look like wishful thinking, but that's not an absolute requirement. As soon as she found out there was no potentially successful, intelligent and handsome son-in-law to go with this wonderful grandbaby, the lustre wore off really quick. Now she keeps phoning me and talking about how my chances of 'a good catch' are going down in flames, and how I'm basically setting my kid up for failure because no 'decent' man would be interested in 'used goods'. She actually used the term 'used goods' in conversation. My own mother." 

"Seriously? That's...kind of terrible." He could think of worse things that a human being could say to another, but the fact that it was her mother just made it that much worse. He couldn't help but think of his own mother. She would have loved a grandchild, wedding first or no. He had a distinct feeling that she would have adored Darcy, but he wasn't sure what to do with that feeling. Darcy sighed again and raked her hands through her hair.

"It's frustrating, because I know that deep down, she just wants the best for me, like any parent would want for her child. The trouble is that her idea of what's best is not the same as mine. I think she's coming around to the fact that baby is staying in the picture, I just wish she'd stop bemoaning my romantic future. It's not like I'm a complete write off, right? I'm having a baby, not joining a convent. I'm not exactly looking for a relationship right now anyway, I have other priorities you know? But I know that her opinion is ridiculous." 

"It is." Steve agreed. "A guy who isn't interested in your child isn't worth your time, and you'll find one that is." 

She reached over the small table and hugged him, hard, before sitting back down with a thud. 

"Thank you. I knew I wasn't insane when I argued that with her. She despairs of my morals too, which is hilarious, because if she knew anything about me, she'd know that I don't sleep around, and on the occasion that I do take someone home with me, I am rigorous about birth control measures. It's just that this one time, those measures failed kind of spectacularly. Junior may be a total surprise, but I don't regret it. To regret him, that would mean that I'd regret everything about how she was conceived and I can't.... It may have been a fling, but it was a fling with a man who needed someone desperately. I don't know why, I don't know what it was that was haunting him, but he needed someone who saw him, and I won't ever regret being that for him, even if it was only for a little while. Sometimes all you need is one memory to fall back on to keep you going." 

Anything that Steve might have said in the face of her conviction was interrupted by the server bringing their orders to the table, and she gave a sunny smile, eyeing the plate with eager eyes. Clearly, she was also hungry. 

"Enjoy!" The server said as she left them to their food, and Darcy dove into the pile of fries straight away. Steve chewed on his absently, turning her words over in his mind. She had a complicated relationship with her mother, but at least she still had her, that was something. And it didn't sound as though she was unwilling to try and work things through with her, she just didn't always know how to approach it. It wasn't a unique situation, certainly not to this time and this place. 

"I haven't got any sage advice for you, I wish I did. I was close to my mother, she was all that I had for a while. We had our moments I guess, everyone does. She was a nurse, and I was not a healthy child, but when you're seven years old and just want to go outside and play, it's hard to be told that you can't."

"You were sick a lot?" 

"All the time. Even when I was older...she didn't want me to work, she wanted me to stay in school, get as much of an education as I could. I did my best, but I was old enough to take on jobs, and bring in a little extra, so I did. And then I'd get sick for months at a time, and we'd be back at square one again. I was trying to put myself through Art college when she died." He remembered that day vividly, and would until he died, he supposed. "She had tuberculosis. She caught it in the hospital she was working at. After that...I kept feeling like she'd come out of Bucky's kitchen to scold me for working too hard for the longest time."

"Who was Bucky? You've mentioned him once or twice, but..." 

Steve smiled, and had to look away from her. 

"Bucky was my best friend. We grew up together. We met when we were kids. He pulled a couple of bullies off me and kept me from getting my nose broken for calling them out. We were inseparable after that, he kept out of trouble by keeping me out of trouble. After Ma died, he took care of me." 

"He sounds like he was an excellent friend. Do you know what happened to him?" 

Steve breathed slowly. Bucky's story, he knew painfully well. 

"He was one of my men. There was a mission, and he didn't make it." 

"Oh...Steve, I'm sorry." She reached across the table and touched his arm. He covered her hand with his and gave it a gentle squeeze. 

"You would have liked Bucky, I think. He'd have liked you, I can tell you that right now. He'd probably have tried to get you to come home with him at least once." 

"Would I have gone, do you think?" 

Steve grinned. He'd thought about this, and sometimes he thought that she'd have probably clocked him one, and other times that she may have actually gone. He wasn't sure how he felt about that idea. 

"I don't know. You're a lot like him, you don't take any bullshit and you stand up for what you believe in, and you're a born troublemaker, just like him. You might have gone with him, but you also might have decked him and laughed over his misfortune." 

Darcy laughed brightly. 

"Sounds like it might have been a turbulent relationship."

"Maybe. But I think you'd have stayed friends, no matter what. He was the kind of guy you could count on. 'Course, then I probably would have had to keep the two of you from getting into trouble, so it's probably a good thing that you've never met him, I don't think I could keep up, even now."

"You make me sound so bad. I like it." 

Steve laughed with her and there was a comfortable silence while they focused on eating. 

"What do you think you're going to do? About your mother, I mean?" Steve asked after a few minutes. 

She shrugged and dumped ketchup onto her plate next to her fries. 

"I don't know. I'm not sure what there is to do." 

"You said that she only wants what's best for you." At her nod, Steve continued, "then you're doing the best that you can. You're not deliberately excluding her from your life?" 

"Of course not." 

"Then she'll come around to the baby. Maybe not the way that you want her to, and maybe not right away, but you're all she's got, right? She'll come around." 

Darcy smiled at him.

"For someone who didn't have any sage advice, you're still pretty good with it. Thank you. Thank you for everything today, I needed it." 

"You're welcome, anything for you, doll." 

* * * 

He'd listened patiently to Darcy grumble about managing the caterer and decorator and fielding calls from a hyperactive DJ. She had blushed rather prettily when he asked if she wouldn't mind saving a dance for him, before she commented that she highly doubted her dance card would be full. 

Friday arrived however, and Steve was actually looking forward to going to a party for once. It probably had something to do with the fact that he wasn't being forced to go and schmooze with military and political bigwigs. He'd had more than enough of that in his time already. When Pepper Potts had given him the invitation, she had stressed that he needn't feel obligated to come, just that if he was in town it would likely be an entertaining evening. 

It was all set up in one of the large conference rooms on the ground floor of the tower. He'd heard someone mentioning that it was usually used for large corporate events, both internal and external. Darcy had promptly quipped that if they were using it for prom, they could also use it for the next science fair. Bruce had laughed, but there had been a manic gleam in Tony's eyes that made Steve not want to be at the tower in a couple of months. 

When he came down, there was music and laughter spilling out into the corridor. He didn't recognize the music, but he knew he wasn't caught up on all the music that he'd missed while he'd been in the ice. He'd been hanging around her office on the day that she'd had an argument with the DJ about the music and knew that she'd threatened him into playing a mix of what she called 'classic rock' and modern music. It was meant to 'appeal to all tastes' she'd said. Apparently the DJ had wanted to throw a lot of really modern music onto the playlist, which she had vetoed, because most of the people going to this thing had been buried in science and technology for the better part of a decade and wouldn't know what to do with any of the rap/dance/hip hop stuff. 

Steve, for one, was glad that she'd prevailed, because this at least sounded like music, rather than the noise that he'd heard some kids listening to recently. 

"Steve!" Tony waved him in from a table that had been set up just inside the doors, sporting a box that was covered in shiny blue wrapping paper and labelled 'Nominations'. Next to it was a basket with raffle tickets and the prize, a nice spa gift basket that Darcy had wrangled. Darcy had explained the idea of the Prom King and Queen to him when she'd been making the box earlier in the day, and she had declared that she was going to fill the box with votes for everyone but Tony, even though that would also mean no nominations for Pepper. 

"You're not bribing people to nominate you as Prom King are you?" Steve asked as Tony handed him a glass of something that proved to be water. 

"No. I don't know what you're talking about. I voted for you." 

"I don't have a date, Tony." 

"Doesn't matter. Lewis can be your queen." Steve raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't give me that face. I've already heard her spiel on how you're just friends."

"We are just friends." Steve told him. 

"Maybe right now, but she's a knockout, and you're not too shabby either, for an older fellow." 

"Thanks." Steve said drily. 

"Trust me. I've been watching you two, you know. JARVIS sees all. You watch her sometimes the same way I used to look at Pepper. Before...everything. Before I smartened up. I'd hate to see you two make the same mistakes I did, so I figured I'd point out the obvious to you. Save you a little time." 

It was a surprisingly frank and personal comment, and not something that Steve expected from Tony, not during a party. If he didn't know that Tony had been seriously curbing his alcohol consumption, he would have asked him how much he'd had to drink. Instead, he took a slow sip of his water while he formulated an answer. It wasn't that he hadn't thought about anything more involved with Darcy. And maybe if he wasn't who was, hadn't been through what he'd been through, he might feel better about the direction that his thoughts took him. 

"I appreciate the advice, Tony, I really do. But..." 

"But what?" 

"But it's not like that. She doesn't see me that way, and that's probably for the best. She's got enough on her plate without adding a man out of time to it. I still have...things...that I'm trying to work through. I'd never want to be burden on anyone, let alone on her."

"I don't think she sees you as a burden Steve." 

"I don't want to become one either." 

The look that Tony gave him was barely readable. He felt like he was being assessed, and it was a strange feeling when Tony Stark was on the other end of that kind of a look. After a moment, he shrugged and looked down at the glass in his hands, swirling the liquid around the ice. 

"We've seen some shit, Steve, I get that. You might be surprised at how much we have in common there. But what makes all the shit worth it is knowing that Pepper is there with me at the end of it all. Just...think on it." Then he smirked and winked at him. "You may change your mind when you see her in her dress." 

That was, of course, the moment that the crowd parted enough for him to catch sight of her, coaxing Bruce Banner out onto the dance floor. She looked gorgeous. The dress was amazing, it suited her style, fun and funky with a bit of class thrown in. It was rose coloured, and sleeveless, the skirt asymmetrical with a band of white and black at the hem. A black sash tied around her ribs, just above the swell of her abdomen. Since she'd started wearing her maternity clothes more often, he was getting to appreciate her curves a lot more, which made keeping his mind out of the gutter incredibly difficult. 

"I told you, she's a knockout." Tony said, before he wandered off to find Pepper. 

When the song changed, she caught sight of him, and waved heartily as she left Bruce in the capable hands of one of his interns and headed to the sidelines. He went over to where she was lowering herself into a chair for rest. 

"You made it." She smiled up at him. 

"I did. Looks like it's a success." 

"So far. You look very handsome." 

Steve grinned and rubbed the back of his neck. He'd protested when Tony had bundled him into a fitting with his personal tailor, but the suit that resulted from it had come in handy. 

"Thanks. You look beautiful." 

"Thank you. I clean up pretty good when I have clothes that fit. Though, the shoes are gonna have to go, my feet are killing me." 

She stretched out her legs and waggled her feet at him, clad in modest heels. 

"I highly doubt anyone's going to complain." 

"If they do, I'll just blame it on Stark." 

"That's your default for everything." 

"It's worked so far." 

Steve helped her take off her shoes, even though she didn't need it, and she sighed in relief. 

"That's so much better. You still wanna dance with me?" She asked him, an eyebrow raised. He grinned and nodded.

"I think I can manage something to this music. You may wish you'd kept your shoes on though."

She laughed and reached out a hand for him to help her up.

"Well, I know how to solve that problem."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I'll stand on your feet." 

Steve laughed as he led her out to the dance floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're interested in seeing the dress Darcy's wearing, I found it here: 
> 
> http://www.motherhoodcanada.ca/Product.asp?Product_Id=90960880589&MasterCategory_Id=MC40


	6. Old Friends, Baby Shopping and Ultrasounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve finally visits Peggy Carter, and major fluff ensues involving baby shopping with Thor and the first ultrasound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks be to Sarah, for being an awesome beta. And also to all those that leave comments, I do read and appreciate every single one, but if I don't answer you, it's not because I don't love you, it's because I have no time, and I'd rather spend what time I have bringing you the next chapter :)

Chapter 5

 

Darcy had urged him to go and see her. When he’d revealed that the only person left from his entire life before the ice was in a long term care facility in Washington, she’d slapped him in the arm and told him that he had to go and see her before it was too late. And, standing in the doorway to Peggy Carter’s room, he realized that she was right. If he waited too long, then she’d be gone too, and he’d have lost the chance to say goodbye, to close that part of his life up for himself. And that was something that he was sure that he’d regret to his own dying day if he allowed it to happen.

The nurse on duty at the desk had given him a rundown on her condition, since he had the appropriate clearance levels and was, apparently, on ‘Agent’ Carter’s list of approved visitors. When he’d questioned this, he’d gotten two answers. 

Her memory was going, it was unclear if this was a result of something called Alzheimer’s Disease or just the fact that she was in her nineties. Either way, as a result, she spent a good deal of her time believing that it was 1945 or earlier. When she did come back to the present, and remembered the time that had passed and everything that she'd seen, she still firmly believed that some day he would come back. 

He wasn’t entirely sure which of those answers broke his heart more.

Evidently though, her short term memory wasn't that good. The nurse at the station had told him that on her good days, she might remember a conversation that she had with someone for a few hours. On a bad day, it was gone in minutes. 

He'd read her file. She'd helped to found SHIELD, had been its Director for many successful years before she stepped down. He still wasn't all that clear on why she had stepped down, but that was something that he could look into at another time. She had led a good life, just like all of his old friends had done, she had been happy. He'd read about her marriage, about how she hadn't had any children of her own, took in a relative of hers when they fell on hard times, helped to raise a grand-niece as her own. He was sure that he'd read somewhere that the niece had actually joined SHIELD, but he hadn't encountered her in his travels yet. 

The woman in the bed looked nothing like the Peggy that he remembered. At least, not at first. He'd seen pictures of her through the years of course, but the last photo in her file was taken when she was in her sixties, and she still looked like herself. This woman, with gray-white hair and frail skin was nothing like that last photo. But then she looked at him, standing in her doorway, and her eyes twinkled just like they had when he had known her, and the smile she gave was the same one that he remembered.

The moment that she registered who was standing in her doorway would be one that he'd remember for a very long time, he was sure. Her intake of breath was almost painful to hear, it caught on a ragged sound that he would call a sob. 

"Steve? Is that really you?"

He came fully into the room and tried to smile at her.

"Yes…it's really me. Hello, Peggy."

"Oh…it's been so long!" She reached for his hand, and he took hers gently, mindful that she wasn't as sturdy as she used to be. 

"I know. I'm so sorry."

"You crashed…and they said you weren't coming back, but Howard never gave up, not ever and as long as he believed, I kept believing it too…"

"I know. And I can't tell you how much that means to me, I really can't."

"Sit, sit! Tell me, tell me what happened." 

He sat, and he unfolded the whole story, how SHIELD had found him in the ice, still alive against all the odds. He told her everything that had happened after he'd woken up to find himself in the year 2012, about the Chitauri, about joining SHIELD and working with Tony. 

"He's so much like Howard, Peggy. Sometimes when I close my eyes, I hear Howard's voice talking to me, not his."

"I met Anthony several times. Brilliant boy, but after his parents passed…"

"Yeah. He's better now, he's got something to occupy himself with, and a gal who makes him look after himself."

"The formidable Pepper Potts…yes, I recall meeting her once when he was older. She was very determined, I quite liked her."

"You'd like her now too. She's a lot like you, only… less shooting things." 

"I liked shooting things."

"Yes, you did." He laughed, remembering the one time that she'd shot at him. 

"Tell me more?" She asked him, her eyes bright and laughing. He told her about Dr. Banner and Thor, about meeting Darcy. To his surprise, she was interested in hearing about Darcy, and he was happy to talk about her. 

"She sounds like she's perfect for you, Steve." 

"Oh…we're not...we're not together. She's been my friend." 

Peggy's smile was as much mischievous as it was sincere. 

"Yes...but good friends make for the best partners, my darling. I learned that myself." 

 

* * *

 

He should have figured that Darcy would come looking for him when he came back to New York. She had known, after all, that he’d been planning to visit with Peggy on this trip to Washington. 

He was sifting through old files again when JARVIS told him that she was at his door, and he told the AI to let her in. She didn’t say anything; she didn't really need to. She just came over to where he was sitting on his sofa and settled in next to him. 

He was very aware that he had no right to expect anything from her, and certainly no right to lay everything that he was feeling at her feet, what he’d told Tony at the Valentine’s party was the truth, he absolutely did not want to be a burden on anyone, least of all on this amazing woman that had walked into his life and made herself at home. 

But right now, when she snaked her arm around his shoulders and pulled him down against her, folding him into a warm hug that he desperately needed, he didn’t care. 

With his face buried against her shoulder, he let himself grieve for everything that he’d lost, everything that had been taken from him. She held him tightly and let him cry, carding her fingers through his hair and murmuring words of comfort against his skin. He'd never remember what she said, but the sentiment was all that he really needed. 

“I’m making a mess of your sweater.” He muttered when he’d calmed down a bit. He felt her shake her head.

“Doesn’t matter. Are you okay?” 

“Not really. But that helped.” 

“Good. I’m guessing that the visit didn’t go that well.”

“It was actually fine, all things considered. She…the nurses said that she may have something called Alzheimer’s. She has trouble with her short term memory. When I was there, she knew what year it was, and knew that I’d been gone, and we had an amazing conversation. Then…then she forgot the whole thing.”

“Oh, Steve…”

“It’s okay. I think, maybe. It will be okay, anyway. You were right, if I didn’t go, then I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. I’ll go again, the next time I’m in Washington. She’s still Peggy, when we talk, she still sounds like the Peggy that I knew and she still has the same kind of insight. She just…doesn’t remember everything anymore.”

“Part of getting older, I suppose.”

“Yeah…that’s what gets me, really. Everyone else, everyone that I knew, they lived their lives. Full, happy lives, just like I wanted them to be able to do. That was the reason that I wanted to be a soldier, I wanted to do my part to make the world a better place for the people that I cared about to live in. I never expected to survive the crash. I was prepared to die there, to let them live on…and instead I wake up 70 years gone by, and everything that I fought for is gone. And I should be happy that they lived…but instead I feel…”

“Cheated.” 

“Yeah…this cube,” he waved at an old file of Howard’s—his preliminary research on the cube that had led to so much chaos, not just for him, but for everyone—“it took so much from me. It’s part of the reason that my best friend died before he got the chance to live his life, and it’s the reason that I climbed into an enemy plane and crashed into the ocean. They found the cube. Howard found it within days, weeks of the crash.”

“So, you’re asking why did it deserve to get found so quickly, when it took seventy years and an ice quake for a giant airplane-shaped tomb to surface?” 

“Something like that.” 

“I don’t have an answer for that, Steve. I don’t think anyone does. But, think about it this way…if you had been found back then, if they had been able to successfully revive you and you got your chance to live back then…what would have happened when the Chitauri invaded New York? Captain America would have been ninety odd years old, does your super serum stop the aging process?”

Steve blinked. He didn’t know. Advanced cellular regeneration, he knew that much. He had no idea what that meant in terms of natural aging. 

“I don’t know. That was never something that came up in discussion, I don’t even think that Dr. Erskine knew all of the effects that it would have, that was why they wanted to study me.”

“Okay, so that’s a pretty big unknown. You could have been in a bed next to Peggy Carter when the Chitauri came, and then where would the world be?”

“Someone else could have taken my place.”

She shifted and forced him to look at her. 

“Do you really believe that? That someone else could have the same mix of rebel soldier to do what you did and get the same result? Because I don’t, I believe that if it had been anyone else, the casualties would have been much higher, and not just in terms human life. The city would have been obliterated, and our way of life would have been severely compromised, if not by alien invaders, then by world governments trying to take advantage of a moment of vulnerability to wage their own agendas.”

“Rebel soldier?” As much as what she said was startling, he could feel her conviction in the way that she gripped his shirt. She really did believe that he’d been the only man for that job, and he’d take that assurance. She huffed lightly into his hair and he could hear the smile in her voice.

“Sure. You’re a soldier, you have a moral centre and you are committed to fighting for what is right. However, you don’t just blindly follow orders. You’re smart, you question when something doesn’t make sense, and you’ve even disobeyed orders in the past when there have been lives at risk. Anyone more of a soldier would have just followed the orders he was given and left it at that. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t gone searching for some answers. But, anyone more of a rebel wouldn’t have bothered to save as many people as you did down on the ground. You will always choose to save people, orders be damned, because you’re a good man. I read some of the file on the Rebirth program, you know that was why Erskine chose you, don’t you?”

Steve remembered the talk he’d had with the scientist the night before the procedure that changed his life. He nodded, and she patted his arm. 

“You’re saying that fate saved me for that fight.”

“The universe is a mysterious place. Aliens are real, Norse gods are real. Is it such a stretch to think that maybe there’s something out there that saw what was coming for us and took a step to lessen the damage?” 

“I suppose not…I just wish it could give me an idea of what to do with myself now.”

“I think you’re doing fine. You’re adjusting well enough, and now you’re dealing with some of what weighs on your mind. That’ll help, big time. Really, I think you just have to do what your friends all did.”

“What’s that?”

“Live your life, Steve. You have to live your life, like you would have if you’d made it out of the ocean seventy years ago. It's still ahead of you, and there are people here who will share it with you if you want them too. It's just a different century, that's all.”

Steve shifted to look up at her, words on the tip of his tongue when he felt something under his hand shift. Surprised, he looked down at where his hand was inadvertently resting against her belly, and she giggled.

“I think that means that Junior agrees with me.” 

Steve blinked, fairly certain that his mind had just exploded.

“The baby’s moving?” He asked, certain that he looked a little like a fool, sitting there grinning down at her belly. Darcy shifted his hand over to a spot on her belly where he could feel a steady thump against his palm.

“Yeah…there’ve been flutters for a while, but they’ve only gotten strong enough for someone else to feel in the last little bit. Jane can never sit still long enough to wait for him to do it again.” 

“I’m the first one to feel this?” 

He looked at her face, and she was giving him a soft smile.

“Yeah…I guess you are.”

“Oh…wow. Um…may I?” He held up his other hand. She nodded, and he splayed both of his hands over the curve of her belly, aiming to feel everything that he could. It was just a slight tapping against his hand, but it was the most amazing thing he’d ever felt, and it was almost overwhelming. 

He could feel tears in his eyes again, but they were different this time. If this wasn’t worth living in the here and now, then nothing was. He wasn’t entirely sure what he’d done to get to share this moment with her, but since she was willing to share it, he wasn’t going to give it up.

“That’s amazing.” He said in a low tone. She grinned at him, and sat up to press a kiss to his cheek. 

“It is. And so are you. Don’t forget that.” 

 

* * *

As a rule, if it wasn't a thrift store, Darcy was indifferent to shopping. Malls were a pain in the ass, boutiques made her feel like she was being judged and department stores never seemed to have what she was looking for. The only reason that she was even in this store was because Jane was insisting that she make a baby registry, and she wasn't in there alone. 

"Tell me, my Darcy, what is it that we do here?" 

As sights went, a Norse god in a baby store was kind of entertaining. Even in his civilian plaid, and if she didn't know that he was a Norse god, he was huge, blond, and did not look like he belonged in a baby store. That's why this was particularly hilarious.

"Shopping for the baby. Jane says that I'm having a baby shower whether I want it or not, so I'm supposed to be creating a registry." 

Thor nodded slowly, and leaned toward her, as though what he was about to tell her was the most important piece of information in the universe. 

"And what is a registry?

Darcy laughed.

"It's an official list of things that I'd like to have for the baby when he or she comes. I use this," she held up the RF scanner that the clerk had given her, "to scan the codes on each item that I like, and the store's computer builds a list for me. Then people look at it for gift ideas." 

"And as these items are acquired they are crossed off your list?" 

"You got it." She winked at him and he grinned.

"Excellent. I have just one further question." 

"Why am I here with you instead of with Jane?" 

"You are correct." 

She grinned back.

"Because, unfortunately Jane got called into an apparently super important meeting at SHIELD Headquarters this morning, and she graciously offered you up as her proxy. She said it would be good for you to get out of the Tower and learn more about human culture." 

Thor raised an eyebrow and glanced around the store. Darcy shrugged.

"Okay, so it's a little niche. But it's better than sitting on your butt making everyone crazy, right? Besides, I'll take you out for some food and we can laugh at the teenagers being ridiculous." She shrugged out of her coat and Thor took it from her, after doing the same with his. She couldn't help but smile, the man was a total gentleman. 

"Very well, lead the way my lady." 

She smothered a giggle and headed out into the store, Thor following at her heels dutifully.

* * * 

Thor was surprisingly good at this, as it turned out. The man had an eye for craftsmanship in just about everything, and he spent a good deal more time debating over the available options than she did. Historically, Darcy had kind of an 'okay, that's good enough' approach to things. She'd had more than one essay come back with less than stellar marks because she decided that it was fine without a second example. Her room was occasionally just less than clean. She'd been getting better, these last couple of years with Jane, because if she didn't make sure that things weren't going to explode, chances were that they would. 

This stuff, she wasn't really all that comfortable with. As much as she was totally cool with having a baby and being a mom, the whole 'let's prepare for baby' thing was still a little scary. But Thor examined everything with a critical eye, from a selection of 'must have' toys to the bigger items, even ones whose purpose he didn't necessarily understand.

"What is this contraption?" He asked her, examining a playpen. 

"That, is what's called a playpen. You use it when traveling, for the baby to sleep in if you're visiting somewhere. Sometimes moms will use them to keep track of the kid when they're doing chores or cooking." 

He frowned in a way that told her he did not approve. 

"None of the samples here are structurally sound enough to ensure the safety of a child." He pronounced. Darcy peered around at them. They looked okay to her. 

"Well...you think so?" 

He shook his head.

"Certainly not a child residing in a home with a collection of carousing men."

"You really think you guys are gonna start wrestling on top of a play pen? I know you guys are a little unique, but even Stark would think twice...well...no, no, he would think twice about getting rowdy with a baby around."

Thor's look was both amused and reproachful.

"We would not willingly endanger your child, Darcy. But, I have noticed that accidents seem to be prevalent in our living space." 

Darcy had to agree. She'd had to start keeping a fire extinguisher by her desk just in case. When Stark wasn't fiddling with his own machinery, he liked to wander around and 'help'. Helping usually led to setting something on fire. She still wanted to know how he managed to set fire to Dr. Banner's experiment, it had been weeks and it was still a mystery. 

"Do you really require one of these?" 

"Well, I don't know. I'm not really planning on a lot of travel, but I think it might come in handy." 

"Then I shall devise a better one for you." He declared grandly, and then wandered off to look at high chairs. "And these?" 

"Those are high chairs. They're for when the baby can sit up and start eating solids, they still can't sit on a regular chair, this puts a baby up high enough to be part of the meal." 

He eyed the selection speculatively, then he lifted and shook each one, and moved all of the moveable parts, frowning slightly at each one. The one that he seemed to approve of was gorgeous, and naturally more than she might want to spend or have someone spend on her. 

"This one has been sturdily crafted. It has excellent balance and is constructed of fewer differing materials. It will last longer than these others."

Darcy eyed the price tag. 

"It's a bit on the pricey side though..." 

"Does expense really matter that greatly when the safety of your child is at hand? You said this list was for others to choose gifts from as well as for yourself." 

Darcy bit her lip and laid a hand on Thor's arm.

"Thor...that is what a registry is for, but...I'm not that comfortable with putting really expensive items on it. I don't want anyone to feel obligated, and I'd feel bad because...I don't know anybody well enough here for this. Honestly, I don't even want to do this in the first place, but Jane's insisting and...I just don't feel right doing it. I'm afraid that it'll look too much like I'm taking advantage, and I already feel like I'm doing that anyway..." 

She could feel herself losing control, and Thor took the scanner from her hands gently, guiding her over to one of the rocking chairs on display. 

"Darcy...be calm. No one thinks this of you, you must trust me. You are a friend and companion, and we care for you very much. We want only the best for you. If you are uncomfortable, that is fine. But, do not think we would begrudge you the desire to put your child first." 

he smiled tremulously at him and he grinned back at her, his eyes twinkling at her with merriment in that way that they did when he was happy. 

"Okay. I'll put it on the list. But, if anyone comments, I'll tell them it was all your idea." 

"That is fair. Do not fear, no one will judge you. Where next?" 

"Um. Cribs? Car seats? I don't know, we've already done a lot, and we don't have to do everything today. I know Jane still wants to come out and do some of this with me." 

"What about one of these?" He asked, running a hand over the arm of the chair. "My mother had something similar when we were boys." He offered softly. Darcy suddenly remembered what Jane had said happened to Thor's mother and her heart broke a little for him. She reached for the scanner.

"Which one is the best one?" 

* * *

Later, when they were sitting in a great Chinese buffet with plates piled high with gorgeous food, food that Darcy was finally able to eat again, she marveled at just how much she'd accomplished. She almost wanted to take him shopping for more maternity clothes, but that would probably short circuit his brain. She eyed him over her kung pao beef, he had a massive plate in front of him, the man is a god, and he eats like one. She was sure that they'd attracted some attention, she was sure she'd felt eyes staring at them as they'd made their way back to their table, but whatever. At fourteen dollars an unlimited plate, it was the best place to take a hungry superhero to eat, so all gossipmongers could just shove it. She could still feel someone watching them though, and that was getting annoying, they weren't doing much more than eating and chatting. Shaking her head, she voiced a question that had been burning in her mind. 

"So, have you ever thought about it?" 

Thor looked up from his plate.

"Thought about what?" 

"Being a father. You've got all kinds of insight, I think you'd be great." 

He smiled at her, one that seemed to be a bit wistful.

"It has crossed my mind. Perhaps more so of late. We are long lived, Asgardians, there is always time. I suppose that I had not yet found the right woman, to borrow a phrase from your culture. But I have lived much of my life in battle, that is no place for courtship." 

"You're not in battle now." 

He looked mildly embarrassed.

"No, I am not. I do think of it more often, now. Jane is...." He straightened and the look on his face was heart melting. "It would be the highest honour to father Jane's children, if she wishes it. But this is not something that we have discussed. It is not yet time." 

Darcy swallowed around the lump of happy that formed in her throat. 

"Secret's safe with me, I promise. For the record, you two will have the most gorgeous babies." 

He grinned sheepishly. 

"Perhaps. For now, we focus on yours. Do you think he or she will take your countenance?" 

Darcy shrugged and speared a chicken ball. 

"It'd be hard to know, I think. He, the father I mean, was dark haired like me. So, odds are baby will have dark hair. We both have blue eyes too, so that'll probably get passed on. Depends though, my dad had brown eyes." 

"I have no doubt that she will be beautiful." 

"Neither do I. I mean, I'm adorable, and he was no slouch. I guess it's a good thing that we did have some similar characteristics." 

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, if I ever find someone for anything long term, it won't be so confusing for the kid. I would hate for him to develop some kind of complex because he doesn't look like the people he identifies as his parents."

"You doubt that you will find a partner in life?" 

Darcy snorted. Of course, that would be the part of the statement that he focused on. 

"I think every girl has that doubt at least once in her life. You know me, Thor. I'm kind of a unique personality and most guys don't last very long with me. Long term relationships and I just haven't really worked out all that well to date. And right now, adding a baby to the mix would be a lot of responsibility in a new relationship. Most guys in my experience aren't looking to take on something like that unless it's their own." 

"Then you are 'experiencing' the wrong kind of man, my Darcy." 

She snorted and had to swallow some water to get the chicken ball out of her throat. 

"You're telling me." 

Suddenly, Thor was eyeing her the same way he'd been looking over all the baby furniture. 

"I have noticed that you have been spending time with Steven of late." 

Darcy almost spat out her water.

"Not you too! That is not fair, you didn't even go to high school."

"I do not understand the reference, but it does not change what I have observed." 

"Oh yeah, and what's that?" 

"You and Steven are very much alike, in that you are both finding a place for yourselves in this life that is being carved out around you. I have been pleased to see that you are becoming more like yourself as time passes, and I believe that your friendship with Steven has been of great service to you. It has also been of great service to him. I believe that he was...lonely."

Darcy was quite sure that she was blushing. 

"I'm..not really sure what to say. He's been a great friend, I like to think that I'm helping him too."

"I believe that you are. In any case, I approve." 

"Excuse me?" 

"I approve. You two would suit each other in life, and I should like to see you both happy." 

"Thor...we're not dating." 

"Not now, perhaps. But there will come a day when your relationship will deepen, I can see it."

There was a frighteningly level of certainty in the way that he'd declared it, and Darcy felt that she couldn't come up with any kind of argument against what he was saying. Instead, she scooped up some lo mein and went back to eating. 

 

* * *

 

Steve was surprised to find himself cornered by Jane Foster on a Friday morning.

“Captain!”

He turned to find her coming up behind him at a speed which belied the length of her legs. 

“You can just call me Steve, Dr. Foster.” He told her when she reached him. She offered him a smile.

“Okay, Steve. Then you can call me Jane. Are you busy this morning?”

“Not particularly, my meeting is already over with, why?”

“I need a huge favor. Darcy has an appointment today, they’re going to be doing an ultrasound. I was supposed to go with her, but she only got the confirmation of the appointment yesterday afternoon, and today is the day that we’re moving into the first test phase, I need to be there to sign off or months of work is going to be wasted.”

“An ultrasound? They’re going to look at the baby?” 

“Yes, exactly. She won’t admit it, but she doesn’t really want to go alone. You two have been getting to be friends, so if you’re not busy and don’t mind…”

“No, I don’t mind.” 

She gave him a brilliant smile.

“Thank you. I know she’s strong, but the city is still so new, and this was kind of a big deal. I would have sent Thor along with her, but one of his friends called him to…Vanaheim? One of the ‘heims’ anyway, last night. And I worry about her, you know?”

Steve kept step with her, and had to laugh at the mile a minute way that she was talking. Darcy had said once that when Jane Foster was on a roll, a steamroller could be trying to run her over and she’d talk it down.

“Can I just say that I’m happy that you two are getting along so well? I think she’s been a little overwhelmed with everything that’s been going on lately, first her summer was pretty eventful, then there was London, then moving here all in pretty quick succession.”

“She’s adjusting pretty well though, isn’t she? She seems to have Tony well in hand…”

“That’s what she’s good at.” She eyed him critically, and for a moment Steve felt very much like he was being measured and weighed. Then she bustled him into an unused office. 

"I just want to say this, okay, you don't have to say anything because I know that you two are sticking pretty tightly to the 'just friends' thing, but, I approve." 

Steve was sure that his eyebrows were trying to climb off his head.

"Excuse me?" 

"I approve, if you have any...intentions toward Darcy, I'm all for it." 

"I don't have..." 

But she waved her hands at him, and was leaving the office. 

"Nope, I said you don't have to say anything. You guys'll figure yourselves out, I'm sure. Her appointment is at eleven, she's already got one of the cars from the motor pool booked. Meet her at the garage at ten fifteen." 

 

* * *

He met Darcy at the declared time in the parking garage. There was a sporty little car waiting for them, the address of her clinic already programmed into the GPS. Darcy grinned, apparently expecting both him and the car. 

"Excellent. If I'm going to be driven around, I like to do it in style." 

She threw him a wink and got in. He followed suit and started the car. 

"So, why don't you drive yourself?" He asked her conversationally as they headed out into the city streets. She laughed. 

"The simple answer? Because my license expired." 

"And the not simple answer?" 

"Because I didn't have a full license when we ran into Thor in the desert, even though I was driving a massive Frankentruck. I was barely able to get a temporary UK license for while I was over there, but when that expired I was kind of stuck. I have to take all the tests again, and I haven't found the time to book anything. Not to mention, I got used to driving on the left side, and New York driving is not exactly my speed." 

"That makes sense."

"That's my life. Everything makes sense. Even the impossible somehow makes sense. I mean, let's think about this. I apply for an internship that I shouldn't even be considering, and I get it. Should have been impossible. I hit Thor, the God of Thunder with a van and tased him in the desert. Impossible. I helped open up holes to other worlds and defeat alien invaders in London. Impossible. I am living in Stark Tower and am currently employed by Tony Stark. Impossible. I'm being driven to my doctor's appointment by Captain America."

"Impossible?"

"You got it. And yet, it happens because the world is a weird place where weird things happen, and suddenly the impossible is possible." 

"That's an incredible philosophy on life." 

"It's worked for me so far. Now all I need is to remember that when I'm faced with sending this kid to school."

"I'm sure you'll do fine." 

"Maybe. We'll have to see, I should see what's left in my trust, I can put it aside for Junior, and then start saving, like, now."

"Is college really that expensive these days? I mean... back in the thirties, we couldn't afford anything, I was barely able to put myself through one year at Art College, and then my mother died..."

"Man, what most students would give for nineteen thirties price tags on education. It's crazy expensive to do a post-secondary degree, and avenues for income are often slim to nil. Doesn't really make for an equal playing field." 

Steve was getting used to just how much everything cost these days, but he hadn't really thought about higher education. It wasn't exactly on his mind anyway, but he remembered how hard it had been to be able to afford just that one year at the local Art College. He'd worked, and his mother worked and he was still sick half the time anyway. And then after...he had never thought about going back. Just living had been too hard enough to do, even when he'd moved into Bucky's place with him. After the war started, it hadn't seemed important.

Darcy was still talking, and he tuned back in to what she was saying. 

"...not like I'm struggling, by any means, not now that I don't have a rent and I'm getting paid really well, but still, it's just me that this kid is going to have to rely on, and that's the kind of thing that I worry about, suddenly not being able to make ends meet." 

He'd grown up knowing what it was like to live in poverty. It was still a huge issue as far as he could see, but it was hard to think that someone who worked as hard as Darcy in the job that she had should have to worry about making ends meet and being able to provide the basic necessities for her child. He didn't like it. His mother had managed, but living was so much more expensive now. Darcy at least had more support than his mother had had. She had family and friends who would look out for her. He was one of them. 

"Hey," he touched her knee, "you know that you have help if you need it, right?" 

She covered his hand with hers and smiled at him. 

"I know, a Tower full of babysitters." 

"Yeah, but...for essentials, I mean. If you need help making things work, making ends meet...you can come to me, you know that, don't you?" 

Her smile grew some. 

"You're a very sweet man, Steve. I do know that, thank you. It's probably not as bad as I think it's going to be, it's really just going to be food and baby paraphernalia, then later education. It's the education that's freaking me out. What if the kid wants to be like, a doctor? Or an astrophysicist? Jane doesn't talk about her loans, I'm pretty sure she had to use grant money to help pay them off. But...if I do get into a jam, I'll tell you, I promise." 

"Good." 

She leaned over the seat and kissed him on the cheek. Luckily they were at a stoplight.

"You're a good man, Steve Rogers." 

"I try." 

"No, I mean it. You've been great, even though you've got your own issues to work through, there's not many men out there who'd do half of what you've done for me." 

He looked over at her again and tried to look as sincere as possible. 

"Most men are jerks then. You know, I'd do anything for you doll." 

Something strange happened then, she was still smiling, but the ghost of something odd passed through her eyes for a second, too fast for Steve to name it. But then it passed and she was grinning up at him. 

"You may regret saying that, you know. Now I have carte blanche to ask you for anything." 

* * *

The clinic felt like every medical clinic Steve had ever been in. Bright lighting, white walls and tiled floors, and a vague scent of disinfectant mixed with the smell of people. This clinic at least seemed to be primarily for women, and there were a few other expectant mothers there, and a few men all sitting with them. Steve assumed that they were all husbands or boyfriends. 

Darcy signed in at the desk and chatted briefly with the receptionist before sitting down in the waiting area. Steve sat next to her and thumbed through a selection of magazines on a table before selecting a National Geographic to flip through while Darcy pulled a book out of her purse. 

There was a TV playing in a corner and aside from that the waiting room was calm and peaceful, different from the ones that he remembered, filled with people who had no where else to go for treatment. Unlike most of the other changes he was forcing himself to get used to, this was kind of nice. 

After a while though, he got the feeling that he was being watched, and he looked up to see a few of the single women look away quickly. 

Mildly embarrassed, he went back to his magazine, but leaned into Darcy a little. 

"They're looking at me." 

Darcy looked at him with an arched eyebrow and then looked around the room in a flash and snorted. 

"Well, what do you expect? You look like sex on a stick, and if they're single like me, or even just not here with their significant others, they're gonna ogle. Pregnant women are horny as fuck, didn't you know?" 

Steve coughed.

"Uh...no. I didn't know that." 

"Mmhmm. I haven't had sex in months Steve. It's not my longest dry spell by any means, but being preggers messes with all the hormones. If they're anything like me, they're going to look at you, and you're probably going to be starring in a few fantasies tonight." 

"Do you? Look, I mean?" 

Darcy put down her book and turned to him, giving him a saucy smile. 

"Steve, if I didn't look I would not be able to claim myself a human being. You're pretty gorgeous, you know. However, you are also my friend, so I will keep all of my hormone-induced fantasies to myself, and will not embarrass you or me with them, okay?" 

He had to admit, as much as talking about this was mildly uncomfortable and he could see the tinges of a blush on her face which told him she was just as uncomfortable, there was something gratifying in knowing that she did look at him like that. That she did harbour fantasies about it felt...normal. So he grinned at her. 

"Okay." 

She grinned back and turned to her book again. He was feeling cheeky still though, so he asked after a beat: 

"Does that mean that I'm allowed to fantasize about you?" 

She hit him with her book, but she was laughing, so he took that as a yes. 

* * *

The room that the technician took them to was dim, and she instructed Darcy to raise up her shirt and remove her pants before getting up on a medical bench and lying back. She went to unbutton her jeans and Steve blinked. 

"You want me to step outside?" 

She looked up at him, confused. 

"Why? Oh, the pants? Pfft. I'm still wearing panties, no biggie. Unless you want to..." she glanced back down at her pants briefly before she looked back up at him. "I'd like you to stay...I'm not sure I can do this on my own." 

In the dim light, her eyes were dark and looked more vulnerable than he might have imagined for such a brassy woman, and he remembered his conversation with Dr. Foster vividly. He hooked a stool with his foot and tugged it over next to the bench, dropping down on it decisively. She grinned and shimmied out of the pants with ease and hopped up to wait for the tech to come back. 

It occurred to Steve in that moment, that this was the first time he'd seen her baby bump bared. Since it was so cold out, she was usually wearing huge sweaters, even inside on the highest floors of the Tower where the heat inevitably rises to. She caught him looking at her, and quirked an eyebrow at him.

"What?" 

"Nothing...I've just not seen your..." He waved at her belly and she giggled.

"The bump? No, I suppose not, with the weather doing its best impression of an ice age this year, I'm freezing, like, all the time. But yeah, believe it or not, that's all baby." 

"Can I?" He reached out a hand to hover just over her skin and she nodded. 

"Hey, maybe you'll feel something in there." 

"He's moving around?" 

"Yeah, some." 

Steve pressed the palm of his hand gently to her belly, holding still and waiting. Nothing moved, but it was still an interesting experience. It was different from the last time, when she'd had her shirt on and he was feeling the baby move through it. Her skin was warm and taut, her belly was firm and strong. Not because she's had to maintain fight readiness, but because she was protecting something precious, and it floored him until the tech comes back in with some interesting looking machinery on a cart. 

"Okay then Mommy, let's get this show on the road. Just keep lying back like that, I'm going to squirt you with a little of this and we'l take a look at how well baby is doing." 

Darcy giggled at the gel being smeared on her tummy.

"It's warm." 

"No point in being cold, only makes it uncomfortable. Okay, you ready?" 

Darcy nodded and the tech set a wand against her belly, and turned the computer screen to face them.

The greyscale picture didn't look like much to Steve at first, an then the tech started naming and labelling things on the screen.

"Okay, we have a left ovary. If we scoot over here, we'll find a right ovary. So, we'll take a trip a bit this way, and..." Suddenly the screen image solidified into a shape that was distinctly baby. 

Darcy's breath hitched and she grabbed at his hand.

"...there's baby. Looking pretty healthy Mommy, that's a good sign. The spine is nice and straight, looks a bit like a zipper, that's what we're looking for in a healthy spine. Fingers and toes, check, no problems. Do you want to know what you're having?" 

Steve found himself answering with Darcy; 

"No." 

"We want it to be a surprise." Darcy clarified. The tech smiled.

"Absolutely. Well, everything's looking good here, I'll grab you a couple of shots to take home with you, okay?" 

Darcy nodded, biting her lip. The tech handed her a towel to clean off her belly and printed out the screen shots, which she handed to Steve with a smile. 

Okay then, you're all set. Good luck, you guys."

Neither of them bothered to correct her on the assumption that Steve was the baby's father. It just didn't seem to be important right then. 

Steve flipped through the pictures with a grin on his face. If there were tears in his eyes when he handed them over to Darcy, that was okay, because there were tears in hers too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTW, people, I am Canadian. We have a graduated licensing system, I have no idea what system exists in the U.S. Darcy not being fully licensed is a reflection of my Canadian roots, because here it's fully plausible to be licensed to drive for up to five years before taking the exit test to get your full license. If it expires before you pass the test, you gotta start back at the beginning.


	7. Baby Showers and Missions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve does some shopping of his own and a baby shower is had despite protests. After a mission, Steve and Darcy may actually finally get themselves together....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, many thanks to Sarah for being awesome. Enjoy all!

Chapter 6

Despite only spending some of his time there, Steve was getting to know Washington pretty well. He was finding his way around the city, finding all the interesting places.

One of his favourites was a bookstore. It was quiet, off the beaten path. It seemed to be a favourite with graduate students, who came looking for material for research papers.

Today, he’d gone in intending to pick up a book about motorcycle repair, and once he’d found what he needed, he found himself in front of the family planning books.

Darcy had mentioned that she’d researched a few books, but wasn’t really all that keen on what she’d found geared towards expectant mothers. At least, there was nothing that appealed to her situation. She’d picked up a battered copy of ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’ at a thrift store, and had decided that it was enough, she’d muddle through her experience.

Standing in front of the plethora of books that had been published on this kind of thing though, Steve got to thinking about it. Darcy didn’t have a lot of female friends who knew about these things. Even though neither of the women that she spent the most time with had children, they would be able to help her if something happened, but what if something happened when they weren’t around. Pepper was constantly travelling, and Jane was in and out of meetings and testing. It was highly likely that Darcy could be stuck in a tower full of clueless men when she went into labour, and he could only imagine the level of panic that could be attained.

But…if they had a guide handy, maybe read up a little on some aspects of pregnancy, that would be helpful. And he had to admit, since the day he’d sat with her during her ultrasound, he had more than a passing interest in pregnancy and the things that could happen over its course.

“Is there anything I can help you with, sir?” A voice asked him politely. He turned and one of the shop assistants was standing at his elbow, smiling at him.

“Umm…actually, are there books like these geared to men?”

“Certainly, is your wife expecting, sir?”

“Ah, no…it’s a friend of mine, she doesn’t have a partner, but she lives and works around mostly men…I was thinking maybe we could use a handbook, just in case she needs help and her girlfriends aren’t available.”

The assistant smiled warmly at him, and beckoned him to a section of shelves.

“These are primarily geared toward expectant fathers, but there are quite a few who come in that are looking to help out a sister or a friend,” She pulled out a couple of books and handed them to him. “these are what are considered the most popular books on the market, and quite a few gentlemen have found these to be useful as well.”

“Great, I’ll take a look. Uh, out of curiosity, do you have any cookbooks?” Darcy had complained recently that someone from the press must have gotten wind of her position at Stark and was watching her like a hawk, she felt someone watching her occasionally when she went out to run errands, or get meals, and Steve felt that she ate too much take out food anyway. Tony had a grocery that delivered weekly, and Steve was more than happy to use it. He figured that if he couldn't convince her to make use of it, then he could limit the number of times that she had to go out in public.

The shop assistant beamed at him.

“There are a few cookbooks for expectant mothers, recipes for high nutrient meals and the like. They’re over in our cooking section, would you like me to find you some examples?”

“Please.”

“Alright, I’ll just be a moment.”

When Steve left the shop twenty minutes later, he had his book, as well as two detailed guides for pregnancy and one hefty cookbook in his possession. He was looking forward to going back to New York to try some of them out.

* * *

“Is this…a pregnancy cookbook?” Darcy asked him, one eyebrow quirked up while she idly flipped through the book in question.

“Yes it is.” He answered, stirring the sauce he was making.

“You bought a pregnancy cookbook? You’re adorable. You’re going to spoil me, you know. What will I do when you’re away on missions, or up in Washington and aren’t here to cook for me?”

“You deserve it. I’ll make extra so you can save it for when you need something and I’m not here. The books say you need to eat nutritious meals, not just an abundance of take out, which tends to be what happens around here.”

“Books? What books? Because I know you haven’t been reading my one book on this stuff.” 

Steve didn’t answer, which she took as a cue to start snooping around his living room, and she naturally found the book that he’d kept for himself.

The other, he’d put up in the common living room, with a note on it telling everyone to read it. Pepper had been in there at the time, and she had made a check sheet for everyone to mark off when they had read it. Dr. Banner had been flipping through it before he’d gone out grocery shopping.

"'Your Pregnancy for the Father to Be'." She read the title off the front cover, bringing it back to the kitchen island. "'Everything Dads need to know about Pregnancy, Childbirth and Getting Ready for a New Baby.'"

“I figured, what if something happened, and Pepper and Jane weren’t here? They’re out often enough. I would hate for something to go wrong because nobody knew what to do. I also bought one called 'Dad's Pregnant Too!' I left it up in the common rooms for everyone else to read. They were recommended by the assistant at the bookstore.”

She was quiet, and after a moment he looked up from his sauce pot to look at her. She was sitting with the book in front of her, her hand pressed to her mouth and he could see her eyes blinking rapidly, telling him that she was fighting back tears.

“Hey now…don’t do that. I’m sorry, doll, I wasn’t trying to upset you.” She shook her head, and he flipped off the burner to go around and pull her into a tentative hug.

“’M not upset.” She mumbled against his chest. “It’s these damned pregnancy hormones making me all gooey...”

“You sure?”

She nodded and drew back to look up at him.

“You…are an incredibly sweet man, do you know that? There’s not a lot of men in the world who’d do half of what you’ve done for me.”

Steve could feel himself blushing, and he shrugged to try and fight it off.

“I haven’t done that much…”

“You held my hand at my ultrasound; that...I can't tell you what that meant to me. And you’ve taken me shopping and to places across town when I’ve gotten a craving. But…you’ve also listened to me when I’ve needed to talk things out, and...you've made me feel a hell of a lot less alone here, and that's helped me so much, I can't...I can't thank you enough.”

“’S no different than what you’ve done for me, doll.”

“I still appreciate it. So…thank you, for being wonderful, Steve.”

“Anything for you, doll. I’ve said that before, I meant it.”

“I know you did. And I appreciate it.”

There was more that he wanted to say, more that he wanted her to hear, but he didn’t have the words. And that was the moment that the pot of water started boiling over, and he had to make a beeline to the stove before there was a flood of hot water over the surface. She turned back to the counter, flipping idly through the books. He turned back to her once he got the food under control, and she had a thoughtful look on her face.

"Something wrong?"

"No...not wrong, just...you're the second person to call me 'doll', did you know that?"

"Am I?"

"Mhmm. I like it, don't get me wrong. I mean, I've never really been about pet names, they're either too saccharine or just plain dumb. I had a boyfriend once who tried to call me 'baby'. He didn't stay my boyfriend for much longer after that."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. I almost got suspended, but I still maintain that he kicked himself in the balls."

Steve burst out laughing, even as he winced.

"Anyway, 'doll' is kinda old school, and because it's so vintage it doesn't feel like it's derogatory. It's totally you, it's just weird that he called me 'doll' too."

Her eyes dipped to her belly, and Steve put down the spoon, intrigued.

"Really? That's kind of unusual, I've noticed that it's not really the go to word these days."

"Yeah, it's a weird coincidence. But, he had a strange way of talking anyway, I'd pegged him as being Russian maybe, European anyway. When I met him, he had that clear diction, like he'd learned English too perfectly. But, when he relaxed, he talked like he'd been watching too many old movies. Maybe he binged on a film festival and picked 'doll' up from them. He was pretty smooth, might have thought it would work. It totally did, at least on me." Her brow furrowed and she was clearly thinking back.

"What was he like?" Steve asked. He had to admit, he was curious about what kind of guy managed to catch Darcy's attention enough that she'd get so involved with him in such a short time.

"He was...there was something about him that I can't really explain. I don't normally hook up with guys while I'm on vacation. I mean, how well can you get to know someone in a week? Usually that's a gamble that I'm not willing to take. But him...I dunno. There was something following him, he had a kind of haunted look in his eyes that he tried to keep under wraps, like he wanted to protect me from it, but if you caught him unawares, it was painful to look at. It was like he'd lived a million lives and none of them had been particularly good. He needed someone, I think. Someone he could just 'be' with, if you know what I mean. No past peering over a shoulder, no future looming up ahead, no judgements and no worries."

Steve knew exactly what she meant. He'd felt that often enough with her. She was good at that, just 'being' with somebody and not making demands on them. He always felt more like his old self, before he gained and lost everything, when he was spending time with her. The snappy comebacks and the sarcasm he used to use on a regular basis came more easily when she was there snarking with him.

"Have you ever thought about looking for him?"

She heaved a sigh.

"I do, but when I think about it, if I had the first clue on how to find a man who I know only as James, I get conflicted about it. I mean, it's only fair that he know that he's fathered a child, but I'm not sure that I really want him to be involved. The kind of darkness that he carried with him, that doesn't come just because, there's always a reason for it, and reasons have a way of coming back to bite someone in the ass, either literally or figuratively. He told me, before I agreed to go with him to this place he had lined up on the shore in Greece, that it was very likely that I would wake up one day and he'd just be gone. I was okay with that, I was all set for a fling. It happened just how he said it would, I went out for a day trip to the Parthenon, and when I came back he was gone. Every now and then, I wonder if he managed to get away from whatever it was he was running from. I hope he did."

Steve wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tugged her tight to his side. 

"I'm sure he did."

* * *

"Hi Darcy." the voice at her office door surprised her, as Dr. Banner tended to keep to his space and leave her to hers. He had a pair of interns that were actually good at being science interns, and there was no reason for him to come down to her office. If she needed anything from him, she'd usually go up to his lab with whatever needed his signature, or, if it was lunch time, she'd take his lunch order up.

"Hey, Doc! What brings you down here?"

She waved him in, and he closed the door behind him.

"I have something for you."

"Presents? You know that the shower that Jane is forcing on me is tomorrow, right?"

"Oh, yes, I know. I just...I do have something for tomorrow, but I wanted to give you this before, I didn't want to embarrass anyone."

"Doc, I am pretty sure that if anyone is going to be doing any embarrassing, it's going to be Stark. I have ten bucks and a coffee riding on it."

"Who did you find that was silly enough to bet against Tony doing something to embarrass someone?"

"I bet Steve he'd embarrass someone else, he's set on him embarrassing himself."

He laughed at that, and when he sobered, he held out an envelope to her. She frowned, and took it from him.

"What's this?" She asked, carefully peeling up the sealed flap.

Inside was a carefully folded set of paperwork detailing some kind of financial statement, and she caught her name typed on it, along with a total that made her choke back whatever words were coming out of her mouth. She looked up at him, fairly certain that her jaw was sitting on her lap.

"Doc...this is..."

"Tony...or I guess it was probably actually Pepper was finally able to get me access to my accounts. I had some investments...before. I don't need them, with my housing and financial stability for the near future pretty guaranteed. So, I want you to have it for Junior's education. They were able to transfer everything into an education savings plan, it's in your name as the guardian, but you can put the baby's name and information on it when that's available." He shuffled his feet, and suddenly she understood why he'd want to do this when they weren't surrounded by other well wishers.

It was too much. She couldn't possibly accept it, not when he might need it, and it was on the tip of her tongue to say so when he spoke again.

"I don't need it, Darcy. Honest, Tony's made it pretty clear that even if I go off on my own, he's going to keep paying me. I really don't need that money, and since it was money that was paid to me by people who now want to kill me, I'd really prefer that you take it and do something good with it."

"But..what if..."

He shook his head.

"I'm not going to have kids of my own, Darcy. It was never something that I really planned for my life, and even if I wanted them now...with the Other Guy, I'm not so sure how that would work out. So, I want Junior to have it, just in case she decides to be a Doctor, or an engineer, or anything that's going to require a lot of school."

Darcy swallowed and looked back at the packages in her hands. Then she nodded and looked back up at him.

"If I take this, I want you to promise me something, in return."

He looked back at her warily.

"O - kay..."

"Promise me that you won't give up on things that make you happy."

He smiled at her.

"If it means that much to you, then yes. I promise."

"Okay. Thank you, Doc. You are probably one of the best men that I've ever met. Now I want a hug."

She stood and came around to hug him, if slightly awkwardly. She grinned when he hugged her back.

* * *

As much as Darcy had complained about having a baby shower foisted on her, she was actually having some fun.

Pepper had pulled out all the stops, they were down in the same conference room that the Valentine's party had been in, and it was done up in baby themes. Jane had made sure that everyone was there, including the people from the fringes of their group that Darcy was getting to know. Dr. Banner's two interns were there, so was the requisitions clerk that Darcy had made good friends with early on. Her name was Mabel and she'd been around so long that she knew how to get -everything- and she liked Darcy a lot.

Jane had managed to get Dr. Selvig to come, though he seemed to be mostly preoccupied with talking to Dr. Banner about something sciencey. Her mother hadn't been able to make it, unfortunately. Pepper had offered to send a Stark jet for her, but there was another meeting that she couldn't get out of. Her mother had sent a gift, and the last conversation that Darcy had had with her, she had asked about coming to New York to help out after the baby was born. Darcy was remarkably okay with that and had agreed.

Jane had spearheaded some games, guess the jelly beans in the giant bottle was a good one, and another word game where if you said the word 'baby' you had to give up a ribbon, and the one with the most ribbons at the end got a prize. She was pleased to note that the cake had come from that bakery in Brooklyn, and that there was a huge platter of cannoli sitting next to it. Either Jane actually remembered, or Steve had talked to Pepper. That thought gave her a warm fuzzy feeling on the same level as the fact that he bought 'dad' books.

Speaking of, he caught her eye across the room and waved at her, she waved back with a grin. 

She was about to make her way over to rescue him from a conversation with one of the girls from Accounting when Jane appeared at her side, catching her elbow.

“C’mon, it’s time to dig into the gifts!”

Darcy groaned.

The pile of gifts was intimidating, because it reminded her of the fact that she didn’t really know these people well, and the idea of them shelling out for this stuff made her uncomfortable. But she let herself be propelled into a chair that was decorated in balloons.

Everyone gathered around, all smiles and laughter, and she could hear Stark stage whispering to someone that he was sure he’d bought the big present, to which she heard Pepper reply;

“Well, you paid for it, if that counts.”

Jane grinned at her and handed her over a package. Thor appeared behind her, looking as eager as a puppy.

“This is from Thor. I promised I’d give you his first.” Jane sent a grin over her shoulder, and Thor grinned back, bouncing on his heels in barely contained excitement.

Darcy snickered, and ripped into the packaging. She was curious, ever since the shopping trip, he’d been secretive about something that he was working on in both Jane and Stark’s lab, and Darcy had too much self preservation to go poking around in either lab right now.

What she found inside the box looked like a very fancy play mat. It was really gorgeous, set in colours like Jane had described from her visit to Asgard, gold and silver and jewel tones. It had beads that spun and shifted along a string, there was a bell that rang pleasantly when she shook it and there were a pair of wooden toys attached with short ribbons that rattled and shook.

“Thor…this is gorgeous.” The man grinned, and folded himself at her feet reaching to take it from her hands.

“May I? There is more.” Behind him, Jane grinned, and Darcy tried not to worry about how gleeful she was. Thor put the mat on the floor and waved his hands over a square in the corner.

All four sides of it suddenly lit up and four glowing walls rose up about four feet from the floor.

“What on Earth?” She asked, startled.

“Asgard, actually.” Jane corrected, and Thor nodded. 

“When we were creating your ‘registry’, you could not decide which of the playing mats you liked the best, and I did promise I would create a safe ‘play pen’ for the child. We do not have the same materials on Asgard, but we do have comparable substitutes. I consulted with various artisans about the best way to approach such a thing. This fabric is similar to that which is used in our draperies and bedding, however I have treated it to resist staining and be both flame and water resistant. I also made sure to sew it using only the strongest of threads, so that it will not unravel by chance.”

Darcy blinked.

“You…sewed this?”

“Apparently the Norse God of Thunder knows how to sew.” Jane piped up impishly. Thor sent her an exasperated look which spoke of long hours of being ribbed by a five foot something woman. It was extremely entertaining.

“I am not unskilled with a needle, there have been many times when my vestments required repair and there was only myself to do so. My mother taught me the base skills.” He told her seriously, ignoring Jane. Darcy smiled at him, and then poked at the glowing walls.

“What about these?”

This was what brought Jane down next to Thor on the floor.

“They’re low level energy fields, built into the seaming of the blanket. I’ve tested them thoroughly, and they’re not going to hurt or have any adverse effect on the baby. They’ll keep her contained, but they’ll also keep things out and away from him more effectively than any pen can. It’s far more portable and far more safe than any Earth playpen.”

“Which is precisely what I wished to create for you. Is it acceptable?” Thor asked her. She waved her hand over the spot on the mat and the walls came down again.

“Can I control the height?”

“Yes. And the child will not be able to deactivate the fields.”

Darcy wasn’t sure how it was supposed to do that, but she’d believe him. She nodded enthusiastically and gave Thor a hug.

“It’s wonderful, thank you. I have to admit, I was expecting some kind of wooden monstrosity, but this is perfect.” 

“I admit, I considered fabricating something for you from some of the valued wood of Asgard, but when I considered the portability, I elected to forego that idea.”

“I’m glad you did, this is great. And it’s totally unique, I love it.”

Thor grinned again, and got up off the floor, tugging Jane up with him.

“Excellent. Which would you like next?” He asked her, surveying the pile.

From Bruce, aside from the education fund, she received a couple sets of play clothes ‘for the tower’. As such, they were chemical retardant, water and flame proof.

“Hey, I think I object to the assumption that I’m going to set the kid on fire.” Stark called from wherever he’d set himself up.

“Stop setting - everything - on fire then!” Darcy yelled back.

From Mabel, she received a charming little bunny themed feeding set;

“It’s ceramic, it may be a little more fragile, but it’s nicer, and melamine won’t last ten minutes with ‘him’ around.” The woman chucked her thumb in Stark’s direction, to an indignant squawk, and Darcy laughed loudly.

Bruce’s two interns had teamed up and bought her a lovely baby tub with adorable hooded towels and a set of washcloths, as well as baby wash and shampoo and the most adorable little bathrobe she’d ever seen.

Jane had gotten her the crib.

“Thor retested the store model, just in case. FYI, it’s sturdy as hell.” She said. She’d also gotten bedding for it that was star themed, highly appropriate. And she’d somehow monkeyed a model of the solar system into a mobile, and it was perfect.

Her mother had sent her two boxes of cloth diapers and covers in assorted sizes. It was incredibly thoughtful, and since Darcy had been researching the advantages of cloth over disposable she appreciated having the option provided.

There was a giant box full of toys that seemed to be a group gift from one of the departments, as well as a plethora of sleepers and bibs from the admin girls. 

The giant boxes were from Stark, sort of. Pepper was giving her the rocking chair, and Stark’s name was signed to the high chair. Stark Industries was giving her the two car seats and the stroller that she and Thor had agreed upon. She was grinning from ear to ear in

an effort not to burst into appreciative tears.

She had saved Steve’s for last on purpose. Mostly, she wanted to enjoy whatever it was that he’d gotten for her, and also largely because it was large, and all of the large things that had been on her list had been accounted for before she knew that he had something for her, so she was curious.

So it was with a grin that she started ripping into the paper it was wrapped in.

* * *

Steve had to admit, when the invite to Darcy’s baby shower had appeared, he was a little surprised. He’d thought these things were usually for the female friends and relatives of the mother to be. But, then he thought more about it, knowing what he knew about Darcy, he realized that her only friends in the city were Jane, Pepper an a bunch of superheroes with antisocial tendencies. It made sense that it would be a rather limited attendance, and that everyone she knew was invited.

The next problem though, was that he didn’t know what to get for her. He’d taken her shopping a couple of times, but on those occasions she was collecting things like clothes and blankets and toys.

He’d heard the tale of the registry shopping day from both Darcy and Thor, Darcy largely griping about being strong-armed into it when she didn’t even want a baby shower, and Thor had helpfully detailed the items that had been selected. He’d also told him about Darcy’s anxiety about putting the pricier items on her list. He really didn’t think that was an issue. He was pretty sure that Tony and Pepper had pulled out all the stops and bought just about all of the things she was worried about on behalf of themselves and Stark Industries. He also knew, thanks to Thor once again, what Jane had gotten for her, Thor was also apparently building her some kind of contraption for when she travelled with the baby, which he was being secretive about.

It left Steve in a bit of a bind, because there wasn’t really anything on her list that felt right. It seemed too impersonal, and he spent a while agonizing over it until Pepper pointed out that the list was really more of a guideline than anything, while they were good ideas, he didn’t have to pick just from the list.

That had helped.

He had seen it in the window of an antique store in Washington when he’d been there after the end of an assignment in February. 

It looked very much like the cradles that he remembered when he was a child, he was sure that he could remember his mother keeping one for a little while when he was very small. When he’d asked to look at it, the store owner gave him a rundown of its history.

It was vintage, manufactured somewhere between 1925 and 1930, based on the style of the piece, as there were no markings. It was low to the ground, the walls of it weren't overly high, and it looked as though it had been hand crafted by someone who really knew how to work with wood, as there were no nails in it. Originally, it had been painted white, and then green and blue had been layered over top, before someone had attempted to strip it. The slats of the bottom needed to be replaced, as they had been removed for some reason. It clearly needed some work, which was why it was discounted.

He bought it, and had it sent to the tower in New York, since he was headed back there within a day or so. He’d spent his free moments ever since working on it, instead of his bike.

It was all worth it though, when she ripped into the paper with a grin and a teasing wink, muttering something about a joke gift, and the look on her face went from teasing to awed in no time flat.

“Steve…this is beautiful. Is this what you’ve been doing down in the shop all this time?”

He nodded, reaching into the makeshift box he’d constructed to disguise it and pulling it out so she could take a good look. She bent to run her fingers along the edge of the headboard.

“It’s gorgeous. It’s not…” She raised an eyebrow at him, and he shook his head.

“No, it’s not mine. It’s not that old; the shop owner where I found it thinks it’s from as early as 1925. I had one similar though, I think. I remember my mother having something like it around. It needed a little love, but…”

“But it’s beautiful.” She ran her fingers over the smoothed wood, and she traced the etching of a teddy bear that had been carved into the headboard. It was an old style bear, the kind that he remembered seeing in store windows as a child, with a pointed snout and jointed arms and legs. He’d left it as it was, painstakingly stripping out the paint gummed into the lines, and darkening them with one of Tony’s laser etchers so that it stood out against the stain that he’d used. The symbols that were carved around it however, those he’d etched in himself.

“These are all the Avengers’ symbols.” She said, tracing her finger over the stylized version of his shield, then Thor’s hammer and Tony’s arc reactor. He stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah. So that the baby knows that he or she is always protected.”

“Steve…I don’t know what to say, this is amazing, thank you.” 

She came around and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding on as tightly as she could.

He’d be lying if he didn’t admit that he was damn proud of the way that her fingers kept brushing over it for the rest of the afternoon.

* * *

They had just gotten all of Darcy’s gifts into her apartment when the alert came through.

Steve scrolled through the message on his phone, with Tony attempting to peer at it over his shoulder, which, given the difference in their heights, really just looked ridiculous.

“Shit.” Steve muttered. Darcy looked up from shifting a few things around in a corner, and even Pepper and Jane stopped what they were doing.

“A mission?” Jane asked. Steve nodded.

“Barton and Romanov are already on it, but the situation is deteriorating fast. There’s something involving some serious tech. They’re asking for all the help they can get.” Steve raised an eyebrow at Thor, who nodded.

“Wheels up in fifteen then, SHIELD is sending a jet.” Tony clapped his hands together. Steve stood away from him.

“You can’t suit up, Tony. Not anymore.” He hated to be the one to say it, but it had to be done.

“I can still help, if there’s tech, you’ll need someone with knowhow.”

“You can’t be putting yourself at risk. I’ll go.” Bruce offered, wiping his glasses on his shirt.

Tony was staring at them in disbelief.

“I don’t believe this. I’m still Iron Man, I can still contribute.”

“Yes…but Tony, without the suit you’re too vulnerable. We can’t do what we need to do if we have to keep eyes out for you too.”

“Then I’ll stay in the jet, on communicators only.”

Steve narrowed his eyes at the other man, and he could tell by the stubborn set of his jaw that there was no arguing him out of this. And if he tried to leave him behind, the man would probably just dig up a private jet or helicopter and follow them, which would be even more dangerous. He jabbed a finger at him, accentuating his words. 

“Fine, but you stay on the plane, you stay on the communicators and you monitor the screens. Bruce will bring you anything we need you to look at, and if you put even so much as a toe outside, I will have Thor fly you home faster than you can blink. Understood?”

Tony straightened and saluted.

“Yes sir.”

“I’m serious, Tony. I’m not playing around with your life, either you stay on the plane, or I will send you home.”

“I get it, Steve. I won’t leave the plane, I promise. And if I do, I will come back willingly.”

Steve nodded, and some of the tension in the room eased, though he could see that Pepper was tense when she came up and just about shoved Tony out of the room. Thor and Jane disappeared pretty quickly, and suddenly he found himself very much alone with Darcy.

It felt different, now. It was one thing to go on missions, he’d been sent out on several since meeting her, but this was the first time she was seeing him off. Usually he was in Washington for the missions, she didn’t know he was gone until he came back.

He raked a hand through his hair and she was fidgeting with her hands.

“Darcy…” It felt like there was too much to say, and not enough time to say it in. She reached for his hand and leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek, lingering there a little longer than she normally would.

“Be safe, okay. Don’t get dead.”

The smile he gave her was small, but it was heartfelt.

“Okay. I can do that.”

“Promise?”

“Promise, I’ll do my best.”

“Good. When you come back, you can make yourself useful and help me assemble all this furniture.”

He left her laughing, and his chest didn’t feel quite so tight. 

* * *

Darcy had watched the jet take off from the landing pad on top of the tower with mixed feelings. It was ridiculous, he did this all the time. They were all going this time around, they would all come back in one piece. There was nothing to worry about, not really. Her brain was convinced, now she just had to convince the rest of her nervous system. And get the pit in her stomach to go away.

Jane sat down on the sofa with her in the common room, after the plane had taken off.

“He’ll be alright. They’ll look after each other out there.”

Darcy nodded absently.

“Yeah.”

“What’s wrong?”

She looked sideways at Jane, and sighed. There wasn't much point in keeping it to herself anymore. Thor had been right, and least for her part of it.

“I think I may be in love with Steve.”

Jane smiled at her.

“Oh, well I could have told you that.”

“Thanks, you’re a big help.”

“I know it. C’mon, let’s raid the fridge for some ice cream. Pepper’ll probably meet us here in a bit.”

“Can we watch a movie?”

“What’re you in the mood for?”

“Nothing schmaltzy. I'm in the mood for action. Let’s watch Bourne.”

“Done. JARVIS?”

“Yes, Dr. Foster. The Bourne Trilogy has been queued for viewing on the television. Do you care to have the Bourne Legacy added to the list?” 

“Oh, yes please.”

“Very good ma’am.”

They settled into the first movie, and Jane was stroking Darcy’s hair away from her face with gentle fingers while she rested against her shoulder.

“Are you going to do something about it?” She asked suddenly. Darcy shifted to look up at her.

“About what?”

“About being in love with Steve? Are you going to act on it?”

“I…” She heaved a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. When the time is right, I suppose. Why?”

“I don’t know. I was all for you two getting yourselves together, I really do think that you’re perfect for each other.”

“But...?”

“But, he goes out on these missions all the time, what if there’s a day he doesn’t come back? He’s still human, there is still something out there that can kill him, given the chance…and I don’t have a way to protect you from that.”

Darcy pulled back and shifted to face her on the sofa.

“Jane…you don’t think I worry about the same thing with Thor? The ancient Norse mythology may paint him as a God, and there may be some truth to it, but he is in fact still a mortal being. There's something out there that can bring him down too, and I can’t protect you from that either. But I’m not going to tell you not to be in love with him, and you won’t tell me not to be in love with Steve either. They’ll do their best to come back alive, and that’s all we can ask.”

“I know…I just…I’m not used to being the big sister. You’ve been taking care of me for so long, there are things about being the caretaker that sneak up on me.”

Darcy smiled.

“We’ve been through a lot together, haven’t we?”

Jane nodded, and the almost incredulous laugh that she gave was less amusement than disbelief.

“We have, we really have. I never thought…when I hired you, you were the only person that applied for the internship, you know that. No one in the physical sciences wanted to trek out to the desert looking for anomalies with a woman whose theories seemed to be, frankly, nuts. But you applied, and you said in your cover letter that you had no idea what this was about, but you were good with computers and it sounded like an adventure. I think, even if a straight ‘A’ physics student had applied, I still would have hired you, because you saw the opportunity and thought ‘adventure’. And we sure got adventure in that desert, didn’t we? I defy any political science internship to be more exciting than running over an actual Norse god.”

Darcy laughed.

“The wilds of New Mexico sounded worlds better than a campaign trail in my hometown. And it was, it absolutely was. And bonus, I gained a best friend out of it too. So…what’s bothering you now?”

“I feel like I ruined your life. Because I hired you for a six month internship, you got trapped under a mountain of NDAs and restrictions that mean that if you wanted to take your degree elsewhere, your options are severely limited. And that’s my fault.”

Darcy threw her arms around the other woman.

“Jane, no, don’t ever think like that. I do what I want, when I want to, you know that. If I didn’t want to be here, I’d have gone wherever I could ages ago. You’re my friend, Jane. If I had to do it all over again, I would still choose you. You have to give yourself more credit, you’re my family now. You and Thor, you’re the brother and sister that I never had.”

Another incredulous laugh.

“That’s both the sweetest and saddest thing I’ve heard. You should have more support than an antisocial scientist and a Norse god.”

“But I do. I have this amazing living legend as maybe more than a friend, and a billionaire who’s taken it upon himself to be my mother hen, which is frankly, hilariously sweet. I have the CEO of a multibillion dollar corporation pulling for me, helping me make a life for myself. Dr. Banner set up an education fund for Junior, did I tell you that? I have plenty of support, Jane. And I wouldn’t trade what I have now for anything in the world. The President could walk in the door and offer me his job, and I’d turn him down in a hot second.”

This time Jane’s laugh was amused.

“Okay…okay, so I haven’t ruined your life.”

“No, you haven’t. You’ve helped to make my life, Jane. Without you, I’d be stuck in small town California probably working at the same law firm that my mother does and wishing I was somewhere more exciting. So, no more of this, big sister, okay?”

“Okay, little sister. But I’m going to look out for you more in the future, okay?”

“We’ll look out for each other. That’s what sisters do.”

* * *

The plane ride home from the assignment was quiet. Despite all of their precautions, the plane itself had been hit. Their pilot was in critical condition, he had to be airlifted directly to a hospital, and a new plane had been dispatched to collect them at the end of it all. They were all a little worse for wear, even Tony, who’d kept his word and had stayed out of it, sticking to the coms and computers. He’d been banged up when the plane went down, he would be fine, the fact that he was coming home with them spoke volumes to that. Pepper was still probably going to murder him, however.

Steve was definitely feeling the last toss to the pavement. His ribs hurt, his back hurt, and he was probably still bleeding from some of the swipes that the thing had taken at him. Barton was probably in a similar boat. Bruce was recovering from a Hulk out, he was passed out in his seat. Even Thor looked like he’d gone a few rounds with something huge. Which, really, he had. The thing that they had built, whoever they were, it had been huge, and it had been hard to take down.

His friend seemed to have other things on his mind though.

“Steven, may we speak?”

Steve scraped a hand over his face and nodded. He had a feeling he already knew what Thor wanted to talk about. He was right.

“I wish to discuss Darcy.”

“Yeah, I had a feeling you might.”

"You are aware that I consider her to be family?"

Steve was not surprised. He figured there was going to be a talk like this at some point.

"She calls you the 'big brother that she never had', so I was pretty aware that you probably feel the same."

"I have noted that she has been happier of late. Specifically since meeting you."

Steve smiled.

"I'm glad to hear it. I would hate...I wouldn't want to be bringing her down."

"You are not, have no fear. But I do wonder, why do you delay in courting her?"

"Why do I....what?"

"Steven...I do not claim to understand all the workings of the human heart, but I do know love when I see it. It is very obvious that you love each other, I can see it in your every actions.”

"I...well...umm..." Steve wasn't sure how to answer him. There wasn't much point in denying his feelings on the subject. If Tony could see right through him, there was no doubt that Thor would as well. He just wasn't as certain of Darcy's feelings.

"She is a most worthy woman, of this I have no doubt you will agree."

"She deserves the best." Steve agreed.

"Indeed. Before, I had thought of finding her a match in one of the warriors of Asgard. Now though, I am most certain that she would not have been happy with such a thing. She could have her choice of partners in either of our realms, or indeed all of them, and still I would see her choose you."

Steve blinked in surprise. Really? He didn't realize that he'd said it out loud until Thor clapped a hand on his shoulder and looked him seriously in the eye.

"There is no man as worthy of my Lady Darcy's heart as you are my friend. Nor do I believe is there a lady as worthy of yours. I have already told her that I approve."

"You...what?"

"She maintained that you are merely friends, but as I have said, I know love when I see it. Is it not also true that a love borne of friendship is the most lasting?"

Steve had to smile. Peggy had said something similar, still he found himself plagued by the same thoughts.

"I don't want to be a burden on her. I'm an old soldier, Thor. What would a young woman like Darcy want with a guy like me?"

Thor laughed.

"You are not nearly as old as I, my friend. And you are...what is your expression? Selling yourself short. We all carry our demons, but it takes effort not to let them rule over our happiness."

"My happiness hasn't mattered for a very long time." Steve mused. He hadn’t thought much about being happy since he lost Bucky, and there was an evil organization out there looking to turn the world into their playground. Not since he climbed onto an enemy plane and deliberately crashed it into ice and ocean. Not since he was supposed to have died in that ice. Meeting Darcy had changed all that.

Thor eyed him shrewdly.

"I believe that it matters far more than you may think."

"What do I do?"

"Speak to Darcy, my friend. If you do not, you will only do a great injustice to yourself and to her."

* * *

When the wayward troupe of Avengers finally returned home, Darcy had lost track of how long it had been. They’d been gone at least a day, maybe longer.

They all shuffled in, Hawkeye and the Black Widow included, and they all looked a little like they’d been dropped from a tall building. Even Tony, who was supposed to have been ‘safe’ in the jet was being helped in by Agent Romanoff.

Pepper rose from the sofa and came over to his other side to guide them somewhere where they could force some medical attention on him.

Thor came in followed by Steve, both of whom looked as though they had been used for target practice. Jane, after exchanging a look with Darcy, got up and took Thor’s arm, leading him out and presumably to their rooms to patch him up. Bruce wasn’t there, though she supposed that he’d already retreated to his place for some downtime.

“Jesus, what the hell happened?” Darcy asked, standing from her chair. Steve sighed heavily.

“It was…”

“Bad.” Hawkeye supplied when he paused. “Clint Barton. I remember you from New Mexico.”

Darcy shook his hand, she hadn’t met the man in New Mexico, but she had read some of his file, and knew that he was a sniper. She could well believe that he’d seen her there without her, or any of them, setting eyes on him. She winced at the gashes on his arm.

Steve also seemed to be covered in bloody slashes, some of which were still bleeding.

“Darcy Lewis, but I’m sure you already knew that. You guys should go to medical.” 

They both shook their heads.

“’M fine.” Steve muttered. Darcy sighed and rolled her eyes. What was it with men and being pig headed about medical care?

“In a minute you’re going to bleed all over the furniture. C’mon, I know where there’s a first aid kit, into the kitchen the pair of you.”

She fetched the kit from the bathroom and set about patching them up. Barton first, since he looked easier. Steve looked like he was going to need more work, and he needed to get out of his suit before she could do anything with him.

She cleaned and bandaged Barton’s arm for him and checked out a few scrapes and scratches on his face and neck.

“Thanks, hon.” He said when she declared him done, and he left the kitchen with a wink and a grin.

She turned to Steve.

“Your turn.”

“I’m fine, Darcy, really…”

“No arguments. Off.” She pulled at the ripped and bloody undershirt of the uniform until it finally came off. “Fuck, Steve. You have half a brick wall in your back.”

“Uh…asphalt road, actually.”

Darcy swallowed around a lump in her throat, choosing to focus on the task at hand.

“I’ll get some tweezers.”

“Darcy, I’ll be fine.”

“Your body can’t heal if it’s still got junk in it, can it?”

“Um… no, not really.”

“Then I’m getting tweezers. Don’t you dare move, or I’ll find you and break your kneecaps.” 

“You can’t…”

“I’ll lay odds I could with a sledgehammer. And you’d be immobile long enough for me to get the crap out of your back. Do you want to test that theory, because I know that Stark keeps a sledgehammer in his lab, not that I want to know why.”

He held up his hands wearily in capitulation.

“Okay, okay. I’m not moving, I promise.”

* * *

It was almost a bittersweet feeling, her small, warm hands travelling over the skin of his back as she picked out the bits of debris and smoothed ointment onto the scrapes and gashes. He wasn’t sure if he was tingling because his body had started healing, or because she was touching him. He knew which he’d prefer it to be.

He grunted when she dug out a particularly large piece of debris from his lower back, and he heard her hiss in sympathy.

“Sorry, that one was a little bit…stuck.”

“S’okay.” He muttered.

“It’s not. I mean…” he heard her sigh and she pressed her forehead to his shoulder briefly. “as much as I get that this is all part and parcel of what it means to be Captain America…sometimes I wish that you didn’t have to take it all on.”

Steve sighed.

“So do I, sometimes.”

He felt her pause in her ministrations.

“You do? Then…why do you do all this to yourself? Is it just because you’re Captain America?”

“Some of it, maybe…I don’t know. Maybe it’s because of Captain America that they all expect me to do this but….”

“But, it’s not what you want?”

He breathed slowly. 

"I never wanted to be ‘Captain America’. All I wanted was to be a soldier, to do my part. It was never supposed to be about becoming a superhero. It was never about being a symbol. After the war was over, I was supposed to go home. We were all supposed to go home. But that was never going to happen was it? They made me, and they were never going to let me go.”

Darcy pressed a hand to his arm.

“You are one of a kind, Steve. Knowing what I know, no, probably not. Even if there were no more wars to fight, they’d have found something. Something that would keep you on their side. For one, I’m really glad that they never got the opportunity. The stuff that came after the wars…that’s stuff that would have changed even you.”

“I've been reading up on it all.”

She leaned her head against his arm.

“They’d have made you into an assassin, a spy, like the Black Widow. I don’t want to think about what that would have done to you.”

Steve breathed, remembering even the little that he knew about Natasha’s past, what she’d done, both under orders and when she realized what those orders were making her into. He wasn’t sure that he would have been strong enough to take the way out that she had.

He rested his head against Darcy’s, and breathed in the peace that she brought. She snaked her arms around him tightly.

“I don’t know if I can keep doing this. Being Captain America doesn’t mean the same thing that it used to. I’m not sure that I like what it’s coming to mean. I don’t think I can keep cleaning up after SHIELD like this.”

Gently, she eased him into a comforting hug and stroked her fingers through his hair. The gesture brought a lump to his throat.

“I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to listen, okay?”

He nodded against her.

“What you signed up for, that was an experimental procedure that stood as much chance of killing you as it did ‘improving’ you. Fate flipped a coin and you lived. No one gets to tell you what to do with that coin toss, not now. Whatever they want to turn you into now, whatever they want that symbol to mean now, you are in no way beholden to it. You served your time, you’re only a soldier now if you want to be.”

“I can’t just turn my back on everything that I’ve become, that’s not in me.”

“Then what you need is to decide what being Captain America means to you. You have to find something that you want that symbol to stand for, a reason to pick up that shield that –you- believe in. Fuck what anyone else wants from you, you don’t owe anyone anything. They are the ones that owe –you-. Make them do what you say, and tell them to go fuck themselves if they argue with you.”

As Steve tightened his arms around her and felt the baby move against his hand he thought maybe he already had something. A really good reason to pick up the shield and fight. Thor’s words came back to him, rolling around in his head.

He lifted himself away from her, keeping a hold on her hips.

“Why do you do this? You have so much already to deal with, why would you want to saddle yourself with a grumpy old soldier like me?”

She looked up at him, frowning slightly, like he’d just asked her why the sky was blue.

“Because I care about you, Steve. You’re my friend.”

And he might have left it at that, except for the flash of something deeper in her eyes that he caught before she dropped her gaze. That she dropped her eyes at all was telling in and of itself.

Part of him still wanted to leave it, to keep being her friend, just so that he still had that safety net under him.

The bigger part of him wanted more. He’d so rarely wanted anything just for himself. Before the serum it was hard to want more than to survive, during the war there was too much at stake, it would have been selfish. After he woke up, there was adjusting to the world, and then saving it again…there as no time. But he wanted a life, a real one. A life where someone loved him and wanted him for himself, who he was, not what he was. One where a wonderful girl cared about what happened to him and where he took care of her the same way that she took care of him.

And he wanted so much to be part of her life as more than just a friend. He wanted to share it with her and he want to see her baby grow up, and be part of it, so badly.

And that bigger part of him was tired of listening to the part that wanted to stay friends. 

He bit his lip and brought his hands up to her face, brushing hair back out of her eyes and tracing over her cheeks. When he met her eyes, hers were damp, and very aware that things between them had just changed. He rested his forehead against hers and breathed

her in again.

“If I said that I wanted to be more than friends…would that be okay?”

One of her little hands twined into his shirt in response, the other coming up to brush against the stubble on his cheek, her thumb running along his cheekbone tenderly.

“That would be more than okay.” She whispered. Steve sighed against her.

“Good. Because I kind of love you, Darcy, a lot. And I don’t want to let that go.”

Her lips twitched into a trembling smile.

“I kind of love you a lot too.”

He tangled his fingers in her hair and brought his mouth down to hers in the kind if kiss that he’d only been dreaming about until now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTW, it's far from over folks, don't get too comfortable :)


	8. A Sexy Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Muchos gracias to Sarah, who got her beta swerve on and proofed through two - count em- two chapters tonight! 
> 
> Many apologies for the delay, however I hope a double whammy makes up for it. And there's another chapter coming soon. :) 
> 
> Note please that this chapter contains smut. If this is not your thing, there's fluff at the end that you may want to catch before you hit "next chapter". Otherwise, enjoy :)

Chapter 7

 

When Darcy woke the next morning, she was in Steve's bed, and Steve as still wrapped around her as tightly as he'd been when they'd eventually fallen asleep the night before. Well, more like early morning, she wasn't entirely sure how long they'd laid awake, just talking. They'd retired to Steve's suite when Barton had reappeared in the kitchen, peering blearily at them and grumbling about 'getting a room'. 

Steve's hand was splayed over her belly, the other stretched out under her pillow, his long legs folded behind hers. She wasn't exactly a fidgety sleeper, she's had her fair share of rough nights, enough to know that when she wakes up in the same position that she fell asleep in, it was a really good night. She figured that it was probably much the same for Steve. 

There was one minor difference though, and she could feel it pressing against the cleft of her bottom. She grinned and bit her lip as he snuffled her hair and pressed a sleepy kiss to her neck.

"Morning," he rumbled, and the rough sound of his voice went straight through her. 

"Morning, someone's awake," she couldn't help but wiggle against his very prominent arousal. Sue her, it'd been months. He grunted, a puff of air against her skin that sent shivers following the same path that his voice had. 

"Sorry about that." 

She giggled and turned over, throwing her leg over his and wiggling as close as she could get. A little hard to do with the extra bulk of her bump, but dammit, she'd manage. 

"Don't apologize, believe me, I would be more than happy to help you with that." 

He coloured, only slightly, not enough to be entirely embarrassed. 

"Darcy..." he ran a hand down her spine and she purred into his ear, causing him to twitch against her. "I'm not sure..." 

"You feel pretty sure." 

"It's not that..." 

"If it's a sensibilities thing, that's fine, I'm cool with that. But, if you think about it, really it's like we've been dating for four months already, because maybe they weren't dates at the time, but coffees and cake and television marathons are totally awesome dates." She settled against him while he continued to stroke her back, and ran his fingers through her hair. 

"It's not that either...I just don't want to hurt you or the baby." 

Darcy blinked and sat up enough to be able to see his face. 

"You're not going to hurt either of us, Steve, I promise. Intercourse is actually encouraged, it's not going to hurt the baby at all. We'd just have to be careful about pressing too hard against him, more because that's uncomfortable, and we shouldn't stimulate my boobs too much, which is unfortunate because under normal circumstances the girls are awesome to play with." 

She watched him blink slowly, the wheels turning in his mind. 

"Are you sure?" 

arcy raised herself over him so that she was sitting squarely on his hips. 

"Yes, I am very sure. As long as you're sure." 

Then Steve Rogers grinned so wickedly at her, she was sure that she had traveled into an alternate universe. He rose up to meet her lips, kissing her deeply in a way that made her toes tingle and lit her whole being on fire. She moaned into his mouth and he nibbled on her lips until she parted them for him, running the tip of her tongue along his bottom lip to tease him. He growled deep in his throat and flipped her onto her back, albeit gently. Still, heat pooled at the base of her spine and parked where his fingers traced the lines of her body. 

He paused when he reached the bump, and she pressed his hand into her skin and shifted it down to brush at the line of her panties. HIs fingers toyed with the edges playfully, another grin tugging at his mouth.

"Something you would like me to do with these?" He teased, and she grinned back at him. 

"Hmmm...I think you know what to do with those, soldier." 

"I might have a few ideas...but they're very pretty, so maybe we'll save that for another pair. Instead," he gripped them and tugged them down over her legs in a move so smooth she almost lost track, "we'll just take them out of the equation." 

Her legs landed on either side of his hips and she had to admit the view was incredibly sexy. Especially after she encouraged him to tug off his shirt. 

He was all smooth lines and firm muscle, and she wondered for a moment exactly how she'd managed to get this lucky. 

She'd never really believed that superbly cut men might find her attractive, her track record until Greece had leant more to the wiry, artsy type. She must have something going for her though. 

"What is it?" Steve's voice brought her back, "you disappeared there for a second." 

She kissed him, running her hands through his hair and down over his impressive shoulders.

I was just wondering what it was about me that's so attractive to a guy like you." 

He chuckled and kissed her again. 

"Hey, I'm nothing special when it comes down to it. You are you, Darcy. You're real and you make me happy, that's what's so attractive. Okay?" 

Tears threatened but she blinked them away.

"More than. Where were we?" 

"Somewhere about...here." Steve shifted and ran his fingers between her legs, brushing ever so slightly against her core, and her breath caught on a gasp. 

"Oh my god," she moaned. She hadn't been touched like this in months, her solo trips had never been this good. All he was doing was curling his fingers against her flesh, but even the gentle touch was sending sparks up and down her spine. She shifted her hips to press further against his hand, but he neatly avoided the move, shifting with her to keep up the teasing touch. She whined, and he kissed her, chuckling into the kiss. He was going to the be death of her, she was sure. She had suspicions that despite Stark's teasing, the man was not a virgin, but she hadn't expected this level of wickedness from him.

She liked it.

She wiggled again, and this time he let her, sliding his fingers between her slick folds to circle her clit, at a very deliberate pace that was going to make her crazy. 

She tore her mouth away from his to moan enticingly into his ear, nibbling on it when she felt his breath hitch. He growled into her ear, and she grinned in triumph before she bit down on his earlobe, tugging at it firmly. 

He shuddered, and his fingers delved unerringly into her wetness. She moaned again, directly into his ear, as she bucked against his hand, driving his fingers in further. He curled them against a spot deep inside her that made her pant, and when she encouraged him to do it again, she went spiraling over the edge with ragged breaths and a high pitched whine.

When she opened her eyes again, Steve was was smiling at her. 

"Hey," he said. 

"Hey." 

"That was kind of awesome." 

"You're telling me. You are incredibly good at that." 

At this he blushed, which was adorable. 

"I've uh...picked up a few tricks in my time." 

"Mm...no kidding. You got any more up your sleeve?" 

She ran her hand over the ridge of his erection, if it was possible he was even harder than before, and he grinned lasciviously at her. 

"Maybe one or two." 

She laughed, helped him strip off his pants, and shucked off her night shirt. 

He passed a hand over the baby bump, and pressed a kiss to her belly button. Then he followed a line up to her breast bone, pressing featherlight kisses the whole way up, making her skin tingle wherever he touched her. 

She wanted to reach for him, but the angle and the baby bump limited her reach; she was able to wrap her hands around his hips and that was about it. 

That seemed to do the trick though, because he levered himself up and slowly pressed into her, inch by slow, tortuous inch. 

It was glorious.

"Oh my god, you feel wonderful." Steve murmured. 

"Mm..." Darcy was pretty sure that she had lost the ability to talk, and probably think. All her focus was on how good he felt inside her, and then he moved and everything just boiled down to pure sensation. 

She was still thrumming from the first orgasm, and she could feel the beginnings of a second one with every stroke. She could only angle her hips so much, but it was enough that he was hitting the same spot at every thrust, and it had her gasping each and every time. She hitched her legs up and squeezed him with her inner muscles, making him gasp and his eyes almost roll back in his head. 

"God...do that again." He grunted. She grinned, and hummed when she did it again, the increased friction delicious against her core. Steve gasped again and thrust harder, increasing his speed and shifting a little to press against her clit with every stroke. It only took a few more strokes to send her flying over the edge again, and this time, she took him with her. 

* * *

"Oof. You're gonna have to move." Darcy grunted from under him, after a long moment. He rolled off her immediately. 

"Sorry! Are you okay?" he watched her face for any signs of further discomfort, but she just grinned at him and brushed her fingers through his hair. 

"I'm fine, soldier. I am more than fine." 

"You sure?" 

She rolled her eyes but she was still grinning. 

"I told you you weren't going to hurt us Steve. I'm fine, Junior is fine. You are definitely fine." 

"Okay, I get it." 

He was still worried, but he'd take her word for it. She'd know after all, and he had no doubts that she would tell him if she wasn't okay. 

She stretched against him like a cat.

"Mm. You are amazing at that." 

"Contrary to popular belief, I am not a virgin." 

"Well, yeah, I figured that." 

Steve raised an eyebrow as she settled against his chest, and Darcy peered up at him with enormous eyes and a mischievous smile. 

"And how did you figure that?"

"Well, for one, you are entirely too mischievous sometimes, for such a 'good boy'. You get a kick out of messing with peoples’ heads, but you do it in the subtle 'did he just?' kind of way that nobody expects. You'd keep a tidbit like that to yourself until you could blow someone's mind with it. My money is always on Stark, by the way. Two, you were in your twenties when all this," she waved her hand over his biceps, "happened. You were still a young red-blooded male, there had to be at least one girl back then who took notice. Third, you were on tour for how long with twenty-odd USO showgirls? I refuse to believe that there were no backstage shenanigans whatsoever. And last, you went to war. You can't expect anyone to really believe that you didn't share some creature comforts with someone over there, I don't care what the history books say." 

She smirked at him when his cheeks coloured. For the most part, she was right on the money, and he wasn't embarrassed about it. It was the history books that were embarrassing. 

"Well?" 

"You're smart not to trust the history books. You're pretty close, just, not with any of the showgirls. Though, they were the ones that taught me most of what I know about..." He held up his fingers, and this time she blushed. 

"They taught you very well, I must say. I will admit that while I suspected you were more experienced than what the propaganda machine would have one believe, I wasn't expecting you to be so deliciously wicked about it." 

Steve laughed and Darcy giggled with him. 

"My first was an Arts major in college. He also had good fingers, but all the romance of a brick wall. I'm not really a hearts and flowers kind of girl, but I still like a little effort, y'know?" 

"Yeah...mine was a girl we met in one of the dance halls. Bucky chatted up her friend and took her home with him, but she took me home with her. She was nice, I drew a picture for her, after." 

Darcy was still smiling at him, but her smirk had dimmed to a pensive smile. 

"I'm glad someone saw the real you back then. You're pretty special." 

He kissed her fingers gently.

"Sometimes I wish I'd known you back then. You'd have seen me." 

"Yes, I would have. All the same, I like knowing you now." 

"Yeah..if I'd known you back then, I wouldn't have you now." 

"Hmmm," she hummed contentedly and smothered a yawn. 

"Sleepy?" 

"Maybe a little." 

"We don't have anywhere to be today, get some sleep." 

"Love you," she murmured as she dropped off. Steve pressed a kiss into her hair.

"Love you too." 

* * * 

Darcy woke to the muted sound of someone talking, and the baby kicking away at her internal organs. 

“Hey now,” Steve’s voice came from somewhere around her midsection. “That’s enough of that, you let your mama sleep, she needs it.” 

The kicking subsided to just a tap against where she could feel his hand resting. 

“I hope you’re okay with all this, baby. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but your mom’s been a little lonely I think, and I just really hope that I’ve been able to take care of some of that. You’re both loved, so much, did you know that? Thor and Jane, they love you, and I love you so much. I’m pretty sure that Tony loves you, he just has a weird way of articulating it. Mostly involving making your mom crazy. You’re going to grow up happy, healthy, and safe; and I’m looking forward to being there and seeing it happen.”

Steve paused, and baby tapped his hand again. She felt him press a kiss to the same spot and could feel his lips brushing against her skin as he spoke again.

“I’m glad you agree. I can’t replace your real father, even if we never know who or where he is, there’ll be a part of you that belongs to him. But, if you’ll have me, I promise I’ll do my very best to be what you need me to be. I want so very much to be your Daddy, baby, are you okay with that?” 

Junior tapped at his hand again, and Darcy was sure that her heart was going to explode. 

“Good, I’m glad. We’ll talk to your mom, but I think she’ll be okay with that too. I love you, baby, I can’t wait to meet you.” He kissed her belly again, and she moved her hand into his hair. He looked up at her with a contented smile.

“Hey, I was just having a talk with Junior.” 

“I heard. Steve…I have no words…” 

He made to roll over, but she made him stay put with firm fingers.

“Just…let me try to say this? You are so wonderful. You have been wonderful ever since I met you, and I can’t imagine my life without you in it now, even though we’ve only been ‘official’ for a little while. I think you became his Daddy when you saw him on the screen at the ultrasound. If you want the job…it’s yours, no question about it. I know that you’re going to be great.” 

He smiled brightly at her. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, of course. If you want…let’s talk to Pepper. She has to have an idea of who we could talk to about getting adoption papers drawn up for after he's born.”

If he’d been content before, now he looked like Christmas had come early.

“Really?”

“Yes, really. I want you to be her Daddy, regardless of whether we find ‘James’ from Greece. We probably won’t, and I love you. I want you to be part of his life, okay?”

“Yeah, more than okay. I just didn’t want to assume anything.”

“You never would.”

He moved up, and he kissed her deeply setting her toes curling and heat licking down her spine again. He pulled back and framed her face in his hands. 

“I love you, Darcy. I promise, I will do everything in my power to protect both of you.”

“Me too,” she told him solemnly. When he kissed her again, they didn’t come up for air for a while.


	9. Another Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is the fluff before the storm, and is mostly just amusing scenes post 'get together'. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Chapter 8

 

They didn’t come out of Steve’s rooms for three days. 

In between further convincing that having wild monkey sex wasn’t hurting either her or the baby, they lounged in front of his television with several movies and TV shows that were either on his list of things that he needed to look into, or on Darcy’s list of things that he ‘had’ to see. They marathoned what she called ‘the original’ Star Trek series; as well as several of the movies starring the same cast. He may have been a little emotional at the end of the second movie, but Darcy just ran her hands through his hair and teared up with him. 

They kept a stack of take out menus on the table and had JARVIS put orders in for them when they got hungry enough, and Steve had massive amounts of snack food hidden away in his kitchen. So much so that even Darcy was a little surprised. 

“Seriously? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bag of Cheesies this big before, where would you even get something like that?” 

Steve had scratched the back of his neck and shrugged.

"Tony ordered it and left it here, I think it was meant to be a joke...but I kinda like them." 

"Dude. Ginormous bag of Cheesies, this is a pregnant woman's dream." 

Darcy had reckoned early on that everyone was taking a long weekend, because there were no texts or calls from Jane or Stark, and Darcy relished in it. 

Still, Monday came and with it came the realization that they had to go back to the real world. 

Steve went down with her to her apartment, since he didn’t have to go to a final planning meeting for an upcoming benefit held for one of Stark Industries most prominent charities. 

“I want to take you out.” 

“Out? Out where?”

“I dunno. Out on a real date. I haven’t had a first date in a long time. It’s been longer since I had a good first date.” 

Darcy grinned at him. 

“You gonna pin me, Captain? Let me wear your ring?” 

He smirked at her and ran his fingers over hers.

“Yes ma’am, if I had one for you to wear, that is.” 

She laughed and went to hunt for clothes in her bedroom.

“Where will we go on this date then?” 

“Dinner and a movie? I’d take you dancing, but you’ve seen me dance.” 

Darcy snorted, trying to contain her laughter. Their dances at the Valentine’s party had been fun, but a graceful dancer Steve was not.

“It’s enough that there’ll be dancing at this damn benefit.” 

She heard Steve chuckle. 

“For a P.A. you’re not much into all that it entails, are you?”

“That’s why I’m so good at it. I don’t care about this crap, so I get the job done. This benefit has been ridiculous: it’s not even really part of my job, we have a department for this kind of thing. But it’s the Maria Stark Foundation, so it’s close to Stark’s heart.”

“Which means?”

“It’s not allowed to go wrong in any way, and he doesn’t actually trust the department to do that, so I’m in there as a safeguard.”

“Well…that means that he trusts you, doesn’t it?”

“It does, a fact that is not lost on me.” 

“It’s in a week, right? I’ll come with you, keep you company. I'm pretty sure that I actually got an invitation to it, I just didn't answer it.” 

She came out of her bedroom, tugging on her jacket. 

“You sure? There’ll be media coverage…”

Steve shrugged, and helped her with the other sleeve. 

“So? The media is everywhere these days.” 

“Well…I just wasn’t sure if you wanted…that is…uh..” 

Steve nodded his understanding, saving her from having to stutter through more half-formed ideas.

“You’re not sure that I’m ready for the whole world to know about you and me.” 

Darcy bit her lip and fidgeted with her hands. 

“More or less. You value your privacy, Steve, I get that. I do too, though maybe to a lesser extent. I just didn’t want to assume anything…”

“I don’t care. I don’t care who sees what. There’s already blurry photos of me and just about every woman that I work with, you included, circulating the internet. I had lunch with Pepper a while back and the tabloids buzzed for weeks about a ‘triangle with two Avengers’ and ‘Stark’s CEO leaving Iron Man for the Stars and Stripes’. They can photograph and publish whatever the hell they want, I don’t care. As long as I get to spend time with you, I’ll be happy.”

Darcy wasn’t sure whether she wanted to hug him or burst into tears. She settled for a slightly soggy hug, and was just grateful that she didn’t wear much in the way of makeup these days. 

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but whatever it was, I’m glad I did it.” 

“So…is that a yes to a date?”

She giggled and pulled away to kiss him.

“Yes, you dork, that’s a yes to a date. Tonight?”

He grinned.

“Good, I’ll swing by at 6:30?”

“Sure, that sounds good.” She grinned at him. Her phone chose that moment to bleep at her and she rolled her eyes.

“Of course, his majesty would be awake early on a Monday morning. See you later!” 

She kissed him again before she headed off down the corridor. 

 

* * *

“So?” 

Darcy pulled her eyes away from the place cards she was proofing for the benefit and peered at Jane.

“Are you actually outside of your lab? Color me amazed.” 

“You’re very funny. C’mon Darce, you were holed up in Steve’s rooms for three days. Spill.” 

“A lady does not kiss and tell.” 

“I don't recall calling you a lady.”

Darcy stuck out her tongue.

“I’m still not telling you all the horny details.”

“Just tell me you at least actually kissed him.”

“I did, and it was perfect. Are you happy now?”

“No. But I’ll live, so long as you tell me that you’re happy.”

Darcy smiled genuinely at her.

“I’m very happy, Jane, really. I already knew how great he was, this is all just icing on the cake. It’s the early days, but I think it’s going to work. He wants to adopt Junior.” 

Jane’s eyebrows shot up her forehead.

“Really? Oh, Darcy, that’s wonderful. Of course he wants to adopt Junior, he’s been half in love with that baby since before your ultrasound. Thor owes me twenty bucks.”

Darcy blinked.

“Uh…why, does Thor owe you twenty bucks? And how, he doesn't carry 'Midgard currency'.” She punctuated with air quotes and deepened and slowed her voice to Thor's tone and cadence, making Jane giggle. 

“Well, technically he wagered an 'eyrir' of silver, which we worked out through some very interesting calculations involving elbows and fingers; is an ounce, and is in the range being the equivalent of twenty dollars. But then I bartered and said I’d take payment in sex. It's easier to measure.” 

“Uh...yeah, thanks for that, I think. That may be a visual that won't go away for a while.” 

“Meh.”

“And why does Thor owe you twenty bucks worth of unnamed sexual favours?”

“I bet him you guys would seal the deal before you emerged from hibernation. He was set on there being more of a ‘courting’ period.” 

Darcy blinked. She wasn't sure that she liked the sound of that. 

“He’s not going to have some kind of big brotherly fit over my honour or something, is he?”

Jane shrugged. 

“I don’t think so. He takes his ‘Midguard’ lessons seriously, plus it might be a little hypocritical of him to go after Steve when he’s been... erm... engaging in the same behaviour. Though…to be safe, I’d warn Steve not to wrestle him for a bit.” 

“Right, gotcha.” 

 

* * *

 

Their first actual date ended up being, if not a rousing success, then at least not an abysmal failure. 

Steve had let Tony loan him the use of his standing reservation at one of the more expensive restaurants in the city. As such, as soon as the restaurant knew that someone important was coming, word started getting passed around sites like ‘Star Finder'. 

At least when they arrived at the restaurant, they were not swarmed by media, because that would have put both of them right off. It helped that they didn't know who they were keeping eyes out for, and Captain America driving up in a sports car with a pair of sunglasses on was apparently a very good disguise. 

The hostess knew who he was though, and flirted with him all the way to their table, something that Darcy snickered at after they sat down. 

The bus boy was obviously straight, because when he brought them their utensils and napkins, he couldn't seem to take his eyes off Darcy's chest, until she snapped her fingers in front of his eyes and informed him that Captain America would break his nose if he didn't raise his eyes. He scurried off in an instant, never to be seen again. 

The waiter though, was definitely very gay, and definitely very interested in Steve. So much so that Darcy had to hide behind her menu to try to keep the giggles at bay.

"You've never had a gay man hit on you before, have you?" she asked when the man had taken their drinks orders and disappeared off to the kitchen. 

"Not really. It's not that there weren't gay men back in my day but…"

"But, since it was more of a taboo, if you were a gay man you wouldn't risk it unless you knew that the other guy was gay too."

"Something like that." 

They ordered two chef's specials, both of which included a salad and a soup to start, followed by a delicious chicken dish with potatoes to die for. 

On learning exactly who was dining in the restaurant, the chef came out of the kitchen to greet them, and was also definitely gay. However, Darcy suspected that the man named Raoul that he kept talking about was his partner, so he wasn't necessarily hitting on Steve, but no one could deny that Steve was a particularly gorgeous man, and that the chef appreciated gorgeous men as a rule. 

Dessert was a delectable cheesecake that made Darcy moan in ecstasy to the point that Steve asked the waiter if they could take a cheesecake home with them. 

"An entire cheesecake, sir?" 

"Yes, a whole cake. To go, please."

"Let me just speak to the chef." 

Then the chef came back out and just about swooned at Darcy's feet, declaring her his favourite woman in the entire world, and if she ever wished to return, he would be sure to have the same cake on the menu, just for her. 

It was as they were leaving that they were swarmed by the media, as they had finally figured out who was in the restaurant. However, the resulting pictures the following morning were again, blurry and difficult to make out. The only good shot of Darcy was taken when she was already in the car, only her face visible. The accompanying headline made her both laugh uproariously and start dialing numbers for their PR department. 

"Plus-size model my ass. Apparently someone at the 'Sun' needs a new pair of glasses. Or a better photographer." 

Jane had snickered at her. 

 

* * * 

 

“So, you and Darcy, huh?”

Steve looked up from his newspaper to find Clint Barton leaning nonchalantly against the kitchen counter, eating an apple that he had apparently speared with one of his arrows. He hadn’t heard him come in, but this wasn't in any way unusual. It hadn't taken Steve long to figure out that Barton moved silently, as any good spy would, and that he used all of the available space in the Tower as 'practice'. He'd found him on and inside the weirdest places. 

“Yes…what about it?” 

“Just sayin’.” 

Steve wasn’t sure if the man was being evasive on purpose or if he truly didn’t have an end to the thought.

“Okay….”

“Does Nat know?”

Natasha had disappeared back to Washington almost within hours of their arrival back at the Tower. Steve hadn’t seen her since they landed, and she hadn’t left any indication of where she was going, she never did. Steve only knew where she’d gone because the orders had appeared as part of the mission debrief reports he’d sent in to Maria Hill. He’d actually assumed that Clint had gone with her, or was at least communicating with her. The man shrugged at him, taking a large bite of his apple. 

“She’s on assignment, radio silence.” 

“Then no, she doesn’t know.” 

“You know she’s going to keep trying to set you up with eligible SHIELD employees until she succeeds, or knows that you’re off the market.” 

Steve smirked and went back to his newspaper.

“Well…it’s not really her business, is it?”

Clint let out a low whistle and sat down across from him. 

“I don’t think anyone has ever tried to mess with Natasha Romanoff’s head before. No one’s ever had the balls. I sure as hell don’t.” 

“Yeah well, I’m not anyone.” 

“Gotcha. So, you and a pregnant chick, huh? That’s awesome. Is the sex as good as I think it is?”

“I’m not having that conversation with you, Clint.”

Clint nodded, almost sagely. The effect was ruined by his shit-eating grin.

“That means yes.” 

Steve threw his newspaper at him. 

 

* * *

 

“I believe that congratulations are in order, my friend. Were we on Asgard I would treat you to a fine flagon of mead, and we would drink to our ancestors.” 

Steve wasn’t entirely sure what to say to that.

“Uh, thanks.”

“I have told you that I consider Darcy to be family. She has accepted you as her partner, and therefore I may now consider you to be family as well. This is a thing to celebrate.”

The declaration both took him by surprise and filled him with warmth. He hadn’t had ‘family’ in a long time. 

“Well…if you really wanted, there’s nice little bar a few blocks away that I like. We could go and get a drink there, to celebrate. I don't think there's any mead, but there must be something.” 

“I would enjoy that very much.” 

“Did someone say drinks?”

Steve jerked, surprised by Clint’s voice directly behind him. He really needed to remember that the man had a tendency to prowl the air vents, especially when he was looking for something to do. He hadn’t been called to an assignment yet, and Steve was pretty sure he was getting a little stir crazy. 

“Uh, yeah. We’re going to go get a drink at this place I like.”

“Sign me up, I am bored out of my mind.” 

 

* * *

 

“Potts.” 

Steve wasn’t sure what he expected, calling Pepper Potts at 2 am, but crisp efficiency wasn’t high on the list. 

“Uh, hey Pepper, it’s Steve.” 

“Steve? What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing’s wrong…just, well….I’m at McGuinty’s and Thor and Barton are very drunk. One or the other I could get back no problem, but both of them together? I’m sorry to be a bother, but I wasn’t sure who else to call. Bruce has gone on sabbatical, I didn’t want to wake Darcy and I don’t have Jane’s number. Tony didn’t answer his phone, and I don’t think he’d have been of much help anyway.”

“No, he wouldn’t. It’s alright, Steve, I’ve been through this before. Thor and Barton together wouldn’t touch Tony on one of his benders.” 

“You haven’t seen them. Thor is trying to…I think the term is ‘karaoke’ but he can’t actually read the words scrolling on the screen, and Barton is…where’d he go? Oh, that’s good. He’s found himself a friend and they’re making stupid bets. I think he’s just bet the other guy that he can climb the walls using only his lips. Help?”

He heard Pepper’s laughter over the line. 

“I’m sending a car. Can you wrangle them out to the curb?”

“Yes, maybe. There’s a big bouncer here who can take Barton if I need him.”

“Okay, ten minutes, Steve.” 

“You are a life saver.” 

* * *

“Captain Rogers, do you have any comments on the rumours circulating about – “

“I don’t listen to rumours, son. Neither should you.” 

“Captain, how would you respond to threats issued from – “

“I’m not commenting on that.” 

“What do you have to say to allegations of –“

“If you’ll excuse us?” 

Steve led their way through the crowd of reporters, one arm wrapped around Darcy’s waist as he guided her through to the door of the hotel that the benefit was being held at. 

“I’m almost offended that nobody’s asking questions about me.” She quipped with a roll of her eyes that told him she wasn’t serious. He smirked at her.

“I could go back out there and point you out for them, if you want.”

“Yeah, no, we’ll manage just fine staving off all the invasive questions, thank you very much.”

“If you insist,” Steve helped her take off her coat and handed it off to the clerk at the coat check with his own. The girl grinned at them and handed them their tickets. 

“It just doesn’t seem fair that Stark and Pepper get all the personal questions, and you get all the business questions.”

“I’ll take it; at least they didn’t ask me what I eat.”

“Say what now?” She raised an eyebrow at him, curiosity piqued. Steve chuckled lightly. 

“One of the interviews we did, not long after Loki, it was a ‘human interest’ thing, what makes the Avengers tick kind of thing, one of the interviewers asked Natasha what kind of diet the Black Widow kept in order to maintain fight readiness. This was after they asked Tony about how becoming a top name in clean energy made him feel, given the dichotomy of his past dealings.” 

“I bet she loved that.”

“She stared the man down and asked point blank why she got the blatantly sexist ‘rabbit food’ question while Tony got the really deep emotional question. She pulled out one of her semi automatic guns and started cleaning it at the table, and Tony told them gleefully that he eats a salad with every steak. They didn’t print that part of the interview, and I’m pretty sure that the guy left the room needing a new pair of pants.”

“I would have paid good money to see that go down; that is awesome. She is terrifyingly awesome, I am both in awe and desperately wanting to fangirl on her. Though, I’m pretty sure that the latter would get me killed.”

“You haven’t met Natasha yet, have you?”

“Not beyond a passing glance when she helped Stark last week.” 

“When she turns up again, I’ll introduce you. Believe it or not, I think she’d like you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Sweet. Right, are you ready for an evening of schmoozing and terrible puns?”

“Not really. I’m ready for an evening of listening to you dish gossip about everyone you’re trying to schmooze.”

“Fair enough. Once more into the breach, Captain!” 

 

* * *

 

They were taking full advantage of the big screen in the common area for the evening, laid out on one of the sofas in front of it while the credits for something Darcy called ‘To Wong Foo’ rolled. 

“Have you done up a birth plan?” Steve asked her suddenly, making her almost spit out the milk she was drinking.

“Uh….yeah. Water breaks, go to hospital, give birth. That’s my plan.” 

“That’s not a good plan, Darcy!” Jane’s voice shouted from the kitchen. 

“Shut up, Jane! And sure it is, it’s simple and easy to follow, it’s all I ask for in a plan, no fuss no muss. Why do you ask?”

“I’ve been reading about them, in the books I bought.”

“I have said it before, and I’ll say it again, you are too adorable.” She shifted and pressed a kiss to his collar bone. 

“You should have something a little more than that though. What if something happens and it doesn’t go according to plan? You want to be prepared.” 

“Listen to the man, Darcy! He’s the man with a plan!” Jane’s shout was accompanied by a giggle, and Steve tilted his head back to peer at the door. 

“Is she drunk?” 

arcy shrugged and tilted her head against the back of the sofa in an approximation of the same direction that Steve was looking. 

“Jane, are you drunk?” 

“Very probably.” A cupboard opened and a glass clinked. 

“Why is Jane drunk?”

Darcy shrugged.

“Fuck knows. She just does that every once in a while. It’s usually highly entertaining, and when I wasn’t pregnant it was great fun to get drunk with her, something I look forward to being able to do again.”

“Is there tequila?” The question was accompanied by some rustling through the cupboards. Darcy rolled her eyes. 

“If you get into the tequila, I am not responsible for what happens to you. Remember that when you wake up naked in a hot tub with a traffic cone and a bag of marbles.”

Jane made some kind of disgruntled noise from the kitchen and Steve moved his gaze back to Darcy’s face, one eyebrow raised.

“Is there a story here that I should know about?”

“It’s not a good night unless you end up with a traffic cone.” Her tone of voice was serious, but she quirked her eyebrows at him. “But, if I tell you, you may wish you hadn’t asked.”

“Fair enough,” Steve said with a laugh. 

Darcy turned a bit so she was half lying on him, her belly supported against his side. 

“So? What are your thoughts on a birth plan, since you’ve been reading up on it?”

“Well…you should think about what you’ll need at the hospital, who you want to be there with you…”

“You, and Jane, if science isn’t happening.”

“Hey, I’ll put science on hold to be there for your baby’s birth.” 

Jane walked by and slung herself sideways into a chair. She had a bottle of wine and a glass, fortunately, not tequila. 

“Thanks, that’s good to know. And why are we drinking tonight?”

“Because.”

"Where's Thor?" 

"Space." 

“Okay then. So, it's you and Jane in there with me when all this goes down. What else should be on this plan?”

“What about who you want notified?”

“No problem. As soon as I go into labour JARVIS will tell everyone within two minutes.” 

“Darcy…”

“Fine, fine. JARVIS can still alert everyone, but…I’ll call my mother, or if I can’t manage it, you or Jane can do that. Okay?”

“What about all the stuff that you’ll need at the hospital? 

“Believe it or not, Stark has already had several bags put together and he’s had them stashed in all of my most frequented locations. They’re marked ‘Lewis’ Baby Bag’ in bold red lettering, and he’s working on linking them all by GPS locator into my phone so that I’d know which one was closest.”

“Good to know.” 

“What about painkillers?” Jane piped up.

“Oh god yes. I fully authorize the use of an epidural to mitigate the horrendous pain.” 

“And what if…what if something goes wrong?”

“Goes wrong how?”

“Well, if the baby’s in distress, or if he’s positioned wrong, the cord is wrapped around her neck….”

Darcy pressed a finger to his lips to stop him before he went further into territory that she didn't like to think about too much. 

“Steve, relax. It’s going to be okay. You’ve been reading too many ‘This happened to me’ articles. It’s true that sometimes childbirth doesn’t always go according to plan, but the percentile is statistically pretty low. But, if by some chance I fall into it, then…we’ll just listen to what the doctor has to say and make a decision. If I can’t make a decision, I trust you two to do it for me. Jane has my medical power of attorney. Okay?” She looked around at Jane, who was stone serious, despite the glass of wine in her hand. Steve nodded his agreement. 

“If I may, I have taken the liberty of recording this conversation for future reference.” JARVIS interrupted. 

“Perfect,” Darcy said, “we’re good? Do we have to talk more about this?” 

“I’m good, “Jane said. 

“Yeah, we’re good. I just didn’t want to end up with a nasty surprise.” 

“I can understand that, but, Steve…you worry too much sometimes. You know that, right?” 

“Yes, I know.”

“As long as you know. Are watching a movie here, or what, JARVIS?” 

“Yes, Miss Lewis. As requested, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is queued and ready for viewing.” 

“Excellent. You’re going to love this, Steve.”


	10. Targeted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The shit hath hitteth the fan... eth.

Chapter 9

 

Darcy had felt the eyes on her all day. When she left the Tower, she mused to herself that it figured; the one day that she decided to walk around town would be the day that some overzealous paparazzo would decide she was interesting enough to follow.

But as the day progressed, and no camera toting asshole got in her face, she started to reevaluate what was going on. Now, laden with shopping bags, she was sure that she was presenting a prime target for whoever was watching her. 

She had told Jane that one of them was going to get mugged in this city before a year had passed, and of course, Stark had confiscated her taser to ‘look’ at it. By which he meant take it apart and Frankenstein it until it was a sleeker and more awesome version of itself, but that wasn’t going to help her now. All she had was a panic alert function built into her phone, also thanks to Tony, and she set it off, deciding that a false alarm was better than being dead. If she was being followed, they’d back off, if they hit her before someone got there, they’d be taken care of pretty quick. 

Even still, when it came, she wasn’t expecting it. She was grabbed into an alleyway with a shriek, swinging her bags in a flurry of movement that she hoped would break the grip her assailant had on her. She was propelled further into the alley, away from the street where she couldn’t be seen or heard above the bustle of New York City. 

There were two, she saw, as she was pushed down onto her knees, a gun pressed to her temple firmly. 

“Is this the one?” One of them said. 

“Matches the picture.” 

“You sure? Don’t wanna screw it up, man, there’s a lot of money on this.” 

One of them shoved her face up, and they shone a flashlight on it, and then she caught a glimpse of her own likeness as they held a printout next to her.

This was not a mugging. There was something else going on here, and a cold pit of terror opened up in Darcy’s stomach as another gun was held to her forehead. 

“Yeah, this is the right one. Said he wants it to look like a mugging gone bad.” 

“Wait…wait, please…” Darcy stuttered, terrified out of her mind.

“Hang on, man. She’s preggo.” One of them muttered, jabbing his gun into her forehead.

“So? You think he don’t know that? S’probably why he wants her out of the way.”

“I don’t plug preggos, I got a kid of my own, man.”

"You ain't seen your kid in ten years!"

"Don't mean that I don't still got one. I ain't doin' it." 

“Fine, I’ll do it then.” 

The gun clicked in her ear, and she bit her lip, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. She had a pang for her baby, and one for Steve as a gunshot rang out.

 

*  
*  
*

 

One of her attackers dropped, and the other swore sharply, swinging away from her, the gun moving swiftly from her forehead. She opened her eyes to see him looking around frantically, before a second shot rang out. She screamed when he fell over onto her, dead weight, bleeding from a gunshot straight through his forehead. She struggled to get out from under him, but she couldn't get out fast enough for her terrified mind, and she screamed until more voices caught her attention. 

“Darcy!”

Steve’s voice was a beacon in the dwindling light, but the best she could do was scrabble away from the two dead thugs, legs and arms flailing. 

Footsteps ran towards her at full speed, and she heard Thor and Barton’s voices mingling with Steve's, welcome sounds barely soothing her nerves.

“Are there more in hiding?”

“We’ve got a sniper, check the rooftops, there’s no telling if he’s a friendly.”

Warm hands grasped her shoulders, and terrified blue eyes appeared in her field of vision.

“Darcy, are you hurt?” 

She blinked, sending the welling tears down her face. 

“Steve?”

“Yes, doll, it’s me. Are you hurt? Did you get hit?”

“No…I…they were going to kill me, I don’t understand, they were going to kill me!” 

She threw herself into Steve’s arms, the rush of terror returning full force. 

“Okay…it’s okay, doll. We’re not far from the Tower. C’mon honey, let’s get you inside. Thor and Barton have got this.” 

Steve scooped her up into his arms and carried her out of the alley, she buried her face in his neck and held on as tight as she could as he headed back to the Tower. 

* * *

"Tell me what happened?" 

Steve's voice was an anchor for her swirling thoughts. 

He was sitting with her on his lap on her couch, running his hand up and down her spine in a soothing motion. She was probably getting blood on him, but she couldn't bring herself to care, she wasn't moving.

She took a deep, shaking breath. 

"I was running errands today. Had an appointment in the morning and then I just went and did some stuff. I felt like I was being watched the whole time. I thought it was just some reporter looking for an opening, but nothing happened, no cameras, no tape recorders, nothing. I set off my alarm because I could still feel the eyes, and I had shopping bags in my arms, I was a perfect target for a mugging....and then..." 

She hiccuped and a glass of water appeared in front of her face. She looked up to see Jane sitting on the edge of her coffee table, she hadn't even been aware that she had come into the room. Darcy tried for a smile, but couldn't manage it. 

They grabbed me and hauled me into the alleyway, far enough away from the street that I couldn't be heard. They had guns, both of them, and they held up a picture to my face and..." She paused, breathing in to try and steady her voice, but there was no way that was going to happen. "They had the guns to my head, they had orders to kill me and make it look like a mugging gone wrong." 

Jane swore softly, and Steve pressed his head to hers. 

"What did they say? Do you remember anything that might help find who hired them?" 

She shook her head frantically. This was beyond terrifying. Not only had two men just been killed, but they'd been killed before they would have killed her, and someone out there had hired them to do it. The hired men were dead, but there was nothing stopping the other person from trying again. 

"They argued, one of them had a child, and he didn't want to kill a pregnant woman, the other said that whoever hired them probably knew I was pregnant, and said he was going to do it...and then the shots rang out and I thought for a moment that I was dead....only then they were falling over on me bleeding and I'm getting blood all over the place and..." 

"Shh. It's fine. We'll put all the clothes in a bag and give them to the police." 

"Oh god...Steve, why would someone want me dead? What the hell did I do?" 

"I don't know, doll, I don't know."

"We'll find out though. You can bet on that." Jane piped up, leaning towards her and rubbing her shoulder. Darcy nodded, and held onto Steve a little tighter. 

 

* * * 

 

Steve left Darcy in Jane’s care in her apartment at the Tower. The older woman had still been pale and worried, hovering over her with blankets and ordering JARVIS to get them some soup delivered. 

When Darcy had fallen asleep in her bed with her taser retrieved from Tony’s lab, Steve took her clothes and his own and went back to the alley where Barton and Tony were going over the place. The police had been called to arrange the identification and removal of the bodies, but apparently all forensics were being subcontracted to Stark Industries. Steve hadn't been aware that Stark Industries even had a department for that. 

Thor was still prowling the rooftops nearby, though all he had found so far was evidence of a rifle in the form of a cone of gunshot residue on the top of one of the buildings across from the alley. Barton had agreed, anyone shooting from there would have had perfect sight lines.

Tony met him with a grim look.

“She was being targeted. They had her picture.” He held up a plastic bag containing the print out of Darcy’s face. Steve’s blood ran cold as he recognized Darcy’s regular OB clinic in the background of the shot. They must have surveillance cameras in there for their own protection, but this meant that someone could access their cameras. 

“She’s being followed.” 

“It looks like. There’s no telling for how long, or by whom. NYPD says these two are small time thugs, just out of prison on probation. They were in for assault charges. They must have been hired to make the hit.” 

“Do we know anything about them?"

“NYPD and JARVIS are getting into their lives. Maybe that’ll lead us to whoever hired them, and their buddy with the bad aim.”

“Bad aim?”

“Well, he hit the two assholes, not the intended target.” Tony pointed out. Steve frowned. 

“Darcy said that they both had guns, they held them both to her head. Why would they have a sniper if they were both armed?” 

Tony shrugged.

“Maybe he was supposed to be back up in case she got away and ran and just got trigger happy.”

Steve wasn’t convinced. It didn’t feel right. Tony reached a hand to his shoulder, patting it awkwardly. 

“We’ll figure out what’s going on here, Steve.” 

“I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on. She’s being targeted because someone’s noticed that she’s spending time with…” He was about to say ‘me’, but he wasn’t really prepared to say it out loud where anyone could hear him. “…us.”

Tony only nodded. 

“We’ll figure it out, we’ll get the bastards, and we’ll keep her safe.” He was trying to be reassuring, Steve could tell, but he just couldn’t see past the fact that he’d almost lost her today. He’d almost lost both of them. It was more terrifying than going up against Schmidt.

“Steve…go home. Go and hold Darcy, tell her that she’s alright and she’s safe. Tell yourself that. We’ve got this, and we've just about done all that we can do here.” 

Steve nodded once, and went to leave, as Thor landed on the ground. 

“There is nothing on the nearby rooftops. There was only the substance that the Hawk identified as gunshot residue and this,” 

He held up a small piece of leather. 

“It was snagged on a nail on the opposite side of a neighboring rooftop,” he pointed upwards across the alley, "whoever this man was, he had taken himself elsewhere by the time we arrived to Darcy’s aid.” 

Steve nodded, and Tony took the fabric from Thor. 

“It looks like leather, pretty heavy. My uneducated guess would be that it’s probably from a jacket. I’ll have JARVIS get the CCTV security footage from around here." 

Thor clapped Steve on the shoulder.

“Darcy?”

“Is fine, physically. I left her with Jane watching over her, she’d gone to sleep. I was about to head back.”

“Indeed. Unless I can be of further use here, I shall join you.” 

Tony nodded.

“We’re good here, Point Break. You go ahead with Steve, make sure he gets back okay.”

Thor fell into step beside Steve as they walked in the direction of the Tower.

“Is she well?”

“As well as can be, after having two guns pointed at her face. They were going to kill her, Thor. Even when they saw she was pregnant. What kind of a person does that?”

“One that has no honor or mercy, and we will find him.” The tone of Thor’s voice suggested that retribution would be swift and absolute. Steve wasn’t about to argue. “You believe that she has been targeted because of her association with you.” 

“I think it’s a possibility. I’ve been keeping a low enough profile, but we’ve been seen out together, and my face is out there. I’ve read enough of SHIELD’s dossiers to know that there are enough people out there who hate me enough to target someone that I love.” 

“What do you intend to do?”

“I don’t know yet. Right now I just want to go home and remind myself that she’s alive.” 

Apparently this was an acceptable answer, because Thor clapped him on the shoulder and they continued walking. 

 

It didn't take them long to reach the Tower, and Thor came up to Darcy's apartment with him. Jane was standing in the hallway, stretching. 

"How is she doing?" he asked her, and she shook her head.

"She keeps waking up. I've finally gotten her to sleep for more than ten minutes at a time, so don't go in there, no matter how much you want to. I'll go back in a little bit and sit with her, but I really want her to get some sleep. She says she keeps hearing the sound of the guns in her ears." 

Thor reached an arm out and rubbed Jane's shoulders gently. 

"It may take time for her to recover herself." He mused. Jane nodded. 

"You might as well go back up to our place and get some sleep, I'll stay here with her tonight."

"I'm staying too." Steve said, and Jane nodded again. 

"Yeah, I kind of figured I wouldn't be able to convince you to go and get some sleep." 

"I shall prepare a soothing broth for Darcy. She may find it useful." Thor declared. 

"That sounds great. Do we have all the ingredients?" 

"Since learning the ways of this ‘Fresh Direct’ I have always endeavored to have all necessary ingredients for anything on hand. It is most marvelous. I shall return." 

Thor disappeared and Steve found himself staring open mouthed after him.

"He cooks too?" 

Jane shrugged.

"Apparently when he's not on Asgard he's learned how to prepare his own meals. He even does it when he's on Asgard, if it'll avoid putting someone out. So he does it here too, lately he's been trying out Thai food. He's turning into some kind of awesome househusband, and I'm not complaining. It's better than cold pop tarts." 

"Maybe we can trade recipes." Steve mused out loud, and Jane laughed softly. 

"Superheroes and food, I am not surprised. So...have they turned up anything?" She asked him, sitting down on the sofa. Steve sat across from her, running a hand over his face.

"Police have identified the two men, they were ex-convicts out on bail. They'd been in on assault charges." 

"Of course they were." 

"All of the forensics are being subcontracted to Stark Industries." 

Jane's eyebrows jumped.

"I didn't know we had a department for that, but it doesn't surprise me, it's all just science. People need independent labs all the time." 

"I'm not so sure about the ethics of doing all the work ourselves. Isn't that a conflict of interest, since she's Tony's assistant?" 

"Yes...but...do you really think that the person responsible for this is actually going to live to see a trial? I can foresee a very unfortunate accident in his...or her...future. If you guys don't get to him, Thor will maintain that he is not bound by Midgardian law and drop him off a building."

Steve chuckled sharply. It was not remotely funny, if it were any other situation but the one that they were currently facing, he would have more than a few choice words to say on the subject, but really, all he wanted was a face to hit and a guarantee that the next time Darcy took a walk there wouldn't be another set of hired thugs looking to make good on the same order. 

"I just want her to be safe." He said. Jane reached over and patted his knee before she got up. 

"She will be, in time. Try to rest, okay?" 

 

* * *

 

Darcy woke, the remnants of dreams of clicking guns and ringing shots still clinging to her mind. Something was wrong. When she’d finally dropped off, Jane had been sitting up in the chair next to the bed with a tablet and the promise to leave the bedside lamp on for her. 

Now, it was dark in the bedroom, and a breeze was blowing across her face from the window. Jane would never have opened the window, no one did, not this far up in the air, and not with winter still clinging to the city by its last tendrils. 

She blinked in the darkness and rolled, sliding her hand under her pillow for her retrieved taser. She focused on the shapes in the dark, until she found one that shouldn't be there. 

Someone was in the room with her. 

She sat up and the figure moved, darting sideways. Panicked, she blindly fired off the taser and rolled from the bed as fast as she could. She hit the floor and bolted for the door, screaming for Steve as she tore through her apartment. 

“Darcy! Darcy, what’s wrong?” 

Steve was in front of her, catching her around the waist and steadying her as she heaved a breath. 

“There’s someone in my room!” She cried, sobbing. Immediately, Steve thrust her behind him and darted down the hall. Barton caught her before she fell over and set her on her feet. 

"You alright?"

"I'm okay...wait, what are you doing here?" 

"Situation update." 

When her breathing had calmed, they followed Steve, though at a slower pace. 

When they got to her bedroom, Steve was leaning out the window and the lamp was back on. 

Darcy spotted Jane immediately, in a heap on the floor. It was a small wonder that she hadn't tripped over her in her escape from the room.

“Jane!” 

She rushed to her side and Barton knelt to help her over. She was breathing fine, and other than a small lump on her head, she didn't seem to be injured. Evidently, whoever it was only wanted to incapacitate her, not kill her. 

“She’ll be okay. Small bump, probably a knock to the head when she fell over, it looks like she's been knocked out with a sedative, but we'd have to get her down to medical to see what it was. What do you see, Cap?” Barton asked. 

“Whoever it was must have rappelled down the side of the building and jimmied the window.” 

“Stark doesn’t have alarms on the windows?”

“Actually, he does. But our mystery guest is either really smart, or he has access to really smart tech. It looks like he rerouted the electrical signal away from the window, without the breach being detected.”

Steve came back inside and waved a device at them.

“Tony can dissect this, maybe it’ll give us an idea about who is behind all of this.” 

“Who do you think it was? What did they want, to finish the job?”

Steve shook his head.

“Who knows how long he was in here. He had plenty of time to do that and could have been long gone before anyone noticed anything. If he was here to kill her, she’d be dead.”

“That’s comforting.” Darcy snorted, shivering. Steve moved over to her and wrapped her up in his arms. “But he didn’t come near me. The moment he knew I was awake, he made for the window. He was just…watching me.”

Barton frowned.

“Intimidation tactic?” 

Steve shook his head.

“I don’t know, maybe. To let us know that he can get in anytime he wants, perhaps. He could be trying to scare us out of where we feel comfortable…just…”

Darcy looked up at his face.

“What?” 

“It just doesn’t feel like that’s what’s going on here. The message is too ambiguous. It feels like there's something else is going on here, and I can’t figure out what. There isn’t enough information.”

“So, what should we do?" 

Steve floundered, looking less than in control, and it was obvious he didn't like it. 

"I don't know yet. We need more to go on before we can figure something out. " 

Darcy shivered again and then rolled her shoulders decisively.

"Well, fuck if I'm going to get any more sleep now. Someone help me get Jane into the spare room, or go and get Thor to take her back to theirs. And I am sure as hell not staying here tonight, not if someone knows which apartment is mine and can get inside. Also, I am starving, who's going to make me waffles?" 

Steve smothered a small smile and left Darcy's side to scoop Jane up off the floor, while Barton chuckled lightly and held the door for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins.


	11. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More shit hits the fan, and Steve's been called to Washington.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another big thank you to Sarah for beta-ing this monster chapter.

Chapter 10

 

Days later, there hadn't been much progress. Darcy refused to go outside alone, she always took someone with her, and Barton went out as a bodyguard, even if she was going somewhere with Thor. Tony dove into the investigation with a zeal that Steve had only ever seen him employ when he was building something. He had taken the fact that someone had been able to bypass his security systems as a personal affront and had promptly started working on a better one. Darcy also refused to sleep alone, and he had spent every night wrapped around her as tightly as he could. She had still woken up screaming at least once a night ever since the attack. She was terrified still, and Steve was terrified for her.  
  
He was in the middle of looking over the few reports that had been filed when he was interrupted.  
  
"Captain Rogers, sir. There is a call for you from Director Fury." JARVIS' voice broke into Steve's thoughts and he automatically turned towards the nearest computer terminal.  
  
"Put it through, JARVIS." Steve waited until he could see the man's face in the screen. "What can I do for you Director?"  
  
"Rogers, I need you back in D.C." Fury told him without preamble.  
  
Steve frowned.  
  
"Is there a mission, sir?"  
  
"There might be, right now I just need you to be here, not hours away in Manhattan."  
  
"How long will you need me to be there, sir?"  
  
"At this point, indefinitely."  
  
"That doesn't really give me much to work with, isn't there more information you can give me?"  
  
"Not at this time, Cap."  
  
"Then with all due respect, sir, can it wait?"  
  
"For what?"  
  
"There are…things that I need to take care of here."  
  
"Like what, exactly?"  
  
Steve hesitated, considering the situation. Whoever was trying to target Darcy could access secure cameras. According to Tony, anything can be hacked, but Steve was more of a mind to consider those who would have access to someone who could hack something like that. He'd seen before how SHIELD could monitor everything without a thought for ethics or morals. It wasn't outside of the realms of possibility that someone inside the agency, or one similar could have accessed her doctor's office's cameras. And if that was the case, he wasn't about to discuss his relationship with her on an unsecured line of communication.  
  
He sighed heavily, and Fury raised his eyebrow at him, waiting.  
  
"Actually, I suppose it's not anything that I can't get done in a day or two."  
  
"Fine. I expect you back here on Friday."  
  
The video ended, and Steve growled under his breath as he sat back in the chair. This was incredibly inconvenient, but at the same time, maybe there was a way to use it to his advantage. SHIELD might have more information about people with a grudge against him, and the Avengers in general. If he could corner an analyst for an hour or so, he might be able to uncover something.  
  
"If I may, Captain, Mr. Stark has requested your presence in his laboratory. There has been some developments on the evidence from Miss Lewis' attack."  
  
Steve shot to his feet.  
  
"Great. Thanks JARVIS."  
  
   
  
* * *  
  
   
  
“Tony,” Steve greeted the other man as he came into the lab.  
  
"Steve."  
  
“JARVIS said that you had some information.”  
  
“Yeah…it’s not a lot, but the ballistics came back on the slugs from Darcy’s attackers.”  
  
“And?”  
  
“There’s not much to go on. They’re Russian made bullets.  If you know where to go, they’re not all that hard to find. Very popular, actually, among the ‘hit squad’ set. The report says there are no rifling characteristics on them.”  
  
“What does that mean?”  
  
“It means good news for the guy on the rooftop, because there’s no way to match them to a gun. He might as well be a ghost, for all that we can find to trace him.”  
  
Steve scowled.  
  
“What about that device we found outside of Darcy’s window?”  
  
Tony picked up the remnants of the thing with the tip of a screwdriver.  
  
“I have been over this thing with a fine tooth comb. It’s impressive, it routes the signal that it’s interrupting back through itself. The system doesn’t recognize that there’s been an interruption, so the mystery guest can get into whatever entry point he wants to use without being caught, electronically.”  
  
“Any clues on who made it?”  
  
“None. There’re no markings; the circuits have all been customized, originally this thing was a pedometer, can you believe that? But all the component parts have been put together from other bits and pieces, it’s a Frankenstein job like I’ve never seen before. Of course, there are also no prints on the thing.”  
  
“What does that leave us to work with?”  
  
“Whoever built it is smart, like, as smart as me. So, either the mystery guest is as good with electronics as he is with scaling a skyscraper, or he has access to someone who is. If it’s access, then we’re probably looking at a fourth party, rather than just three.”  
  
Steve growled.  
  
“What about the assholes that attacked her, are there any more leads there?”  
  
Tony shook his head.  
  
“They’re lowlifes, but we knew that. The police turned up some emails between one of them and an unidentified third party, detailing the job and all of Darcy’s information. The email was sent from an anonymous email address on a server that pinged around for a while before it disappeared. Whoever hired them covered his tracks. Again, he is either smart, or has access to someone who is.”  
  
Steve felt like punching the wall, so he did. Tony only raised an eyebrow at him.  
  
“I’d make you pay for that, but it’s no worse than what I did in here last week. At least nothing's on fire.”  
  
“Is there nothing solid that we can start from? Just untraceable bullets and untraceable men?”  
  
“Steve…I’m sorry, I really am. I put our forensics on this to make sure that all grounds were covered, and they’re looking into everything they can, they’re tearing into these two guys' lives like tissue paper. JARVIS is trying to back trace that server, if there’s anything to find, he’ll find it. We’ll figure it out, but it’s going to take time.”  
  
Steve sighed and sank down onto a vacant stool across from Tony, rubbing his face over with one hand.  
  
“What else is wrong?”  
  
“What?”  
  
“You present the appearance of a man with a problem.”  
  
Tony was fiddling with something that involved a lot of wires and a screwdriver, but he was staring directly, disconcertingly, at Steve.  
  
“Fury’s calling me back to Washington. He won’t say why, or for how long.”  
  
“I told you it was a bad idea, joining up with SHIELD. Fury hides, and Fury lies. I’m still on the fence about the upgrades to their helicarrier specs that I gave them, but I figure the next guy that has to fix them doesn't have a suit so...anyway, don’t trust him, don’t trust any of them.”  
  
“I didn’t really have much in the way of choices, Tony. I wanted to help people, and being officially over ninety years old makes it hard to get any other job.”  
  
“I’ve got some ideas, you know. You can still help people without signing your soul away to SHIELD.”  
  
“Yeah…I know.”  
  
“But that’s not what’s bothering you.”  
  
“No...Tony, Darcy's still not safe. I can feel it, and I don’t want to leave her unprotected. If something goes wrong in Washington…if you get the feeling that something isn’t right…will you take her somewhere safe?”  
  
Tony blinked.  
  
“She’s not going to like that.”  
  
“Probably not…but I’ll talk to her about it. If nothing else, she’ll go for the baby.”  
  
“Okay. You got it, Steve. I’ll take her to the mansion.”  
  
Steve frowned, confused.  
  
“I thought it was destroyed.”  
  
“The one in Malibu was. Dad’s old place in upstate New York is still intact. And it’s not a place that I am frequently found, so few people will look for us there.”  
  
“It’s safe?”  
  
“Dad built it in the fifties, complete with Cold war era underground survival bunker. No one gets in there that isn’t supposed to. I’ve upgraded the security systems twice over, it’s safer than Fort Knox. She’ll be okay there, Steve. And I’ll bring Pepper.”  
  
Steve remembered then what had happened to Pepper and just how dangerous a woman she could be if properly motivated. It was odd, she went about her daily life without any fuss, but she could probably take on the Hulk and win, and that was a sobering thought. He focused again on what Tony had said.  
  
“Okay. Thank you, Tony.”  
  
“Don’t mention it. You would do the same for me, if I needed it.” Tony shrugged nonchalantly, but Steve was starting to get used to looking beyond the man’s surface.  
  
“Still, thanks.”  
  
“Anything hinky at all, and we’re gone. Here, take this.”  
  
Tony handed him something that looked like a phone.  
  
“What’s this?”  
  
“It’s the latest Starkphone.”  
  
“Tony…I already have a phone.”  
  
“This one is completely new. It’s not going to hit the market for at least a year. It’s not on any public carrier network, it’s connected only to JARVIS. I don’t trust anything SHIELD issue, including their tech. If you need it, use it. JARVIS will relay everything and open up whatever communication lines you need. And…we’ll be able to contact you, securely. I’ve programmed Darcy’s phone number into it, and I’ll hook hers up, so she can send you an alert. Just in case, y’know.”  
  
Steve gripped it tightly, and then tucked it into a pocket.  
  
“Thanks.”  
  
“Don’t mention it. Really, don’t tell anyone that you have that, not even Pepper because she will kill me. And I’m pretty sure that the kids who’ve been working on this would turn feral if they found out I gave away, even to you.”  
  
Steve chuckled and left the lab, he had to go and talk to Darcy. Not a task he was really looking forward to.  
  
   
  
* * *  
  
   
  
Steve was acting cagey, and Darcy didn’t like it. She didn’t know how to deal with it, because usually, when he needed to talk about something, all it took was a little gentle prodding during conversation. He’d never acted like this, and it was pressing on her already frayed nerves.  
  
“Steve, what? You’ve been sitting there looking like you want to bolt out the door for the last hour, and it’s making me crazy.”  
  
He at least looked a little guilty.  
  
“I’m sorry…I don’t mean to annoy you.”  
  
“I know, but honey, if there’s something you have to say, just say it and get it over with. Otherwise I’m going to sit here stewing for the rest of the night, and I hate that.”  
  
He nodded and he took a deep breath.  
  
“Fury’s calling me back to Washington. He’s not telling me why, and he won’t give me a timeline on when I’ll be able to come back here.”  
  
Darcy bit the corner of her lip. It was news that she had been expecting, eventually SHIELD would want their soldier where they could access him at all times. But even so;  
  
“Does it have to be now? Really?” she tried not to whine, but she wasn’t sure how successful she was. She disliked being so needy, but the events of the past week would have rattled anyone, and her emotional balance was already compromised. Steve leaving was like a really big, solid rug being pulled out from under her.  
  
Steve was immediately at her side, wrapping an arm around her to pull her close to his warmth.  
  
“I’m sorry, I am. I want to take you with me, but…”  
  
She smiled a little, and leaned up to kiss his cheek.  
  
“I would go in a heartbeat, but I do have commitments here, appointments that I have to keep. I’m just being needy, don’t mind me.”  
  
“You are not needy. You’re scared, and rightfully so. I wish I didn’t have to go, but I signed on for this job…until I’m absolutely certain it’s not what I want, I have to keep my commitment to it.”  
  
“Of course you do. I’ll be fine. I’ll miss you like crazy, but we can still talk, right?”  
  
“I hope so.”  
  
“Good. And email, email is good.”  
  
“I want you to be safe while I’m not here.”  
  
“Thor’s here, he won’t let anything happen to me. And Barton’s become my personal bodyguard whenever I go outside without you. I’ve caught him in so many trees…”  
  
“Will you stay here?”  
  
“What, here as in the Tower? I have news for you if you think I'm leaving this Tower for more than errands.”  
  
“Here, as in, my apartment. I don’t want a repeat of that night at all, if someone can get into your place once, they can do it again, even with Tony's amped up security system. Stay here, or with Jane?”  
  
She smiled at him gently.  
  
“You have a weird way of asking a girl to move in with you, Rogers. But okay, I will happily stay here. Frankly, the thought of going to my apartment alone right now still scares me.”  
  
“Good. And there’s one more thing.”  
  
Darcy narrowed her eyes at the tone his voice took on, like what he was about to say was probably going to really upset her, and he was girding himself for it.  
  
“I talked to Tony about this, and if something happens while I’m in Washington, I’ve asked him to take you somewhere safe.”  
  
“Okay.”  
  
“If you’re being targeted because of me…. Okay? did you say, ‘okay’?”  
  
“Yes, that’s what I said.” She wanted to laugh, it would feel good to laugh, but this was all still too serious.  
  
“You’re not going to fight with me about it?”  
  
“Well…if circumstances were different, we’d be having a conversation about being an overbearing asshole and making my decisions for me. But, in this case I happen to agree with you. I don’t want to stay here where we’re a giant huge target if shit starts going down. I’ll be damned if I let someone threaten my baby again. So, I’ll go where Stark says it’s safe, and I’ll do my best to keep my head down. And technically, all you did was ask Stark to take me somewhere, you didn’t tell me that I was going, because no matter what you tell Stark, if I don’t want to go somewhere, I won’t go. I’m stubborn like that.”  
  
Steve smiled down at her.  
  
“Yes, I guess you are.”  
  
“What about Junior though? There’s only a little time left, are you going to be able to get back for D-day?"  
  
“Tony’s given me a brand new Starkphone, it’s secure. He’s put your number in here, and he’s going to make it so that yours can call it. If you go into labour and I’m not here, you call me, and I will get back here as quickly as I can, I don't care what Fury might have me doing.”  
  
She nodded, and rubbed at a spot low on her belly. Junior pressed against her hand, stretching out. Steve wrapped her up in his arms again and she settled against him.  
  
“When do you have to go?”  
  
“Fury said ASAP, but I still have things I need to square away, I’ll go tomorrow night.”  
  
“Okay. Enough time for some fun then, yeah?”  
  
He tilted her face up to kiss her.  
  
“You got it, doll.”  
  
* * *  
  
It wasn’t as hard as she thought it was going to be.  
  
There was enough in her day to day life to keep her busy, between Jane and Stark she was always occupied.  
  
The only big difference was that it was Thor accompanying her to her OB appointments instead of Steve, with Barton essentially swinging along in the trees. On the very first one after Steve left, Barton actually came in and scoped the place out, and Thor looked very intimidating for the entire thing. She’d ended up poking both of them in the side and introducing them as her overprotective older brothers, standing in for Steve while he was away.  
  
Thor had been remarkably pleased to have been openly identified as her brother and had given her a massive hug afterward. Or at least, as massive a hug as he could with the baby bump in the way.  
  
Barton, the little shit, had taken that as invitation to start behaving like an annoying brother would and started a prank war with her. Pepper had to put a moratorium on that when what would have been a truly spectacular prank involving a fan, a broom and a bowl of jello backfired and almost triggered a Hulk-out.  
  
She still missed Steve though. At least his shiny new Starkphone meant that she could video call him through JARVIS.  
  
“I have a neighbour.” Steve was saying over one such call.  
  
“Oh yeah? And you didn’t before?”  
  
“If I had one before now I didn’t realize it. I didn’t really spend a lot of time here, you know.”  
  
Darcy grinned at him.  
  
“So, a neighbour. Male, female, old, young?”  
  
“Uh…female, her name is Kate. She’s pretty young, not much older than you if I had to guess. She’s a nurse, I think. Whenever I see her she’s wearing scrubs.”  
  
“Hm. Is she nice?”  
  
Steve raised an eyebrow at her.  
  
“I suppose so, why?”  
  
“Good, make friends.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Make friends, Steve. All you have in that city is the spy of spies and his minions. Try to make some friends that aren’t SHIELD employees, it’ll be good for you.”  
  
He mock saluted.  
  
“Yes ma’am.”  
  
“You better not be sassing me, Steven Rogers.”  
  
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”  
  
He was the picture of innocence, and she didn’t believe it for a second.  
  
“How is it there, otherwise?”  
  
He shrugged, his expression sobering.  
  
“It’s fine, I guess. It’s a lot of briefings about operations that are ongoing, frankly there’s not much for me to do but run in the mornings and take notes in the day. I’m catching up on my sightseeing, really. Been in to visit Peggy a couple times.”  
  
“They’ve opened that new ‘Captain America’ exhibit at the Smithsonian, haven’t they?”  
  
“Yes...”  
  
“You should go see it. You can correct them on anything they got wrong.”  
  
Steve laughed at that.  
  
“I’m pretty sure that they pulled together everything that they could on me for it. Did you know that my old suit ended up there?”  
  
“The one you were wearing when they defrosted you, are you kidding?”  
  
“I am not.”  
  
“What bonehead gave them that?”  
  
“I actually asked about it, the one that they gave me for the Loki thing was good, but I was missing some elements on the old suit and wanted to try and combine the two and they told me that the World Security Council approved the donation as it would ‘assist in the positive image of SHIELD.’”  
  
Darcy snorted.  
  
“I’m sure they did. So, hang on a second, are you getting a new suit then?”  
  
Steve grinned and nodded.  
  
“I sat with a couple guys in the armoury and uniform areas and hammered something out. I’d send you the specs but…”  
  
“Top secret and all that. I get it. But I’ll get to see it, right?”  
  
“I would hope not for any reason other than I’m modeling it for you.”  
  
“Well yes, I would prefer that as well. Hey, maybe Stark can build a catwalk; that would be so awesome.”  
  
“Darcy…”  
  
“No, no, I can see it now: Avenger’s fashion, for the hero on the go. Your butt would look awesome on a runway.”  
  
They laughed, and something beeped at his end.  
  
“Oh, hey that’s the guy from the armoury, I need to meet him and talk armoured plates.”  
  
“Okay. Talk to you soon, yeah?”  
  
“Yeah, tell me how tomorrow’s appointment goes?”  
  
“Of course.”  
  
“I love you.”  
  
“I love you too.”  
  
   
  
* * *  
  
A few days later, it was a tense and worn looking Steve that smiled at her when she connected for their call.  
  
“Hey…you look like hell.”  
  
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”  
  
“Hey, you know I’d never lie to you. Everything okay?”  
  
“It’s…I don’t know what it is. There was a mission, Natasha and I were on it together.”  
  
“Your face tells me that it didn’t go well.”  
  
“It was successful, but…there’s something going on Darcy, and I’m as much worried about what I do know as I am about what I don’t know. You know that Tony gave SHIELD some design specs for the new helicarrier engines, right?”  
  
“I’ve reviewed the files. Every two or three weeks some engineer from SHIELD emails looking for help.”  
  
“These helicarriers…they’re scary. In the wrong hands, they could do exponentially more harm than good.”  
  
“What are the chances that they’ll fall into the wrong hands?”  
  
Steve shrugged and worried at his lip.  
  
“A week ago I might have told you none. Now…I’m not so sure.”  
  
“That is really scary, Steve.”  
  
“Yeah…I guess we’ll have to see what happens. On the plus side I think I made another friend.”  
  
“Oh yeah?”  
“Yeah…he was running the same route that I was the morning before we went out on our mission. I think I may have thrown him off his game a bit, but he was a good sport about it.”  
  
Darcy snorted a giggle.  
  
“Translation, you pulled a roadrunner and the coyote was still up for a chat afterwards?”  
  
“Just about. He’s also ex-military. He works with the VA, I may stop by tomorrow and say hi.”  
  
“You do that, it sounds like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Oh hey, before I forget, take a look at this!”  
  
Darcy pulled the latest ultrasound picture out of her bag and held it up for him to see.  
  
“Junior is doing fine, is as healthy as an ox.”  
  
Steve’s grin was barely contained on the screen.  
  
“That’s great! Thor is still going with you right?”  
  
She nodded and smirked.  
  
“He just about leapt out his skin at the computer image of the baby, it was cute but also awkward. And Barton sticks to the trees outside. I think the man may be part monkey. Have you been to the exhibit yet?”  
  
“I’m going later, I said I would.”  
  
“I want a souvenir, you promised.”  
  
“Yes ma’am.”  
  
* * * Tony was in the middle of an argument with Darcy when the news broke.  
  
“Guys. Turn on Channel 5.” Clint’s voice told them over the speakers in the lab.  
  
Darcy folded her arms over her chest and turned to a monitor.  
  
“JARVIS, Channel 5 please.”  
  
The monitor flickered to life showing ‘live coverage’ of ‘breaking news’ in Washington D.C. The footage was not great, but there was clearly wreckage from a large black vehicle in flames, and reports that police had been pursuing the driver, a black man described by witnesses as wearing an eye patch, before an unidentified man in dark clothing and armed with an assault weapon sent the vehicle overturning.  
  
Darcy stared first at the screen, then up at Tony with large eyes, the argument forgotten.  
  
“Eye patch,” she said. Tony nodded.  
  
“Fury’s been compromised. If he’s being targeted, there’s trouble. Pack your shit, kiddo. We’re moving out.”  
  
Darcy nodded and bolted for the doors to the lab, as fast as her bulk would allow.  
  
"JARVIS, tell Pepper that she may want to teleconference her meetings for the rest of the week, or cancel them altogether, and try to get Steve on the phone."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Keep trying until we get him."  
  
Barton dropped out of the ceiling above his head, landing like a cat.  
  
“I can’t get through.”  
  
“To who?”  
  
“To anyone. Obviously Fury’s not picking up, Hill’s number goes to voicemail and Nat’s been radio silent for weeks. She has a backup that she uses in emergencies, and she’s not even answering that now, and that's what's really worrying me.”  
  
“No one at SHIELD is answering the phone?”  
  
“No one that I trust.” Tony considered this for a moment while he transferred some his files from the Tower servers to the servers at the mansion, and had JARVIS boot up the security systems from sleep to active mode.  
  
"What are you thinking then?” He asked him. Barton shrugged.  
  
“I’m a SHIELD agent, but I’m also an Avenger. If I can’t reach anyone at SHIELD that I know has my back, then my next loyalty is to the Avengers. If you’re bugging out, I’m coming with you.”  
  
Tony raised his eyebrows at him.  
  
“You trust me?” Barton smirked back at him.  
  
“For lack of better options, yes, I do trust you. Cap trusts you; otherwise he wouldn’t have left Lewis to your care. And Cap went to bat for me after Loki, so I’m good with going where he points. Wherever you’re going, a second pair of eyes and ears isn’t going to hurt.”  
  
“No, they won’t. Bring your suit, in case we have to suit up.”  
  
“Are you kidding, I’m bringing my whole fucking arsenal. You don’t have a suit anymore.”  
  
Tony held up the mess of wires he’d been working on.  
  
“I will soon.”  
  
* * *  
  
Decamping to the mansion was a surprisingly easy process, all things considered. Tony hadn't been there in ages, but everything was still as he remembered it, and Pepper immediately took over his father's old office to keep working remotely. Darcy found herself a space and a desk and went on about her business until she had to go and lie down.  
  
Naturally that was when JARVIS finally got Steve on the line.  
  
"Tony."  
  
"Steve."  
  
"You've seen the news?"  
  
"Most of it. Fury's MIA?"  
  
"Fury's dead. He was shot by a sniper in my apartment. Tony…the bullets that they pulled out of Fury…”  
  
"What about them?"  
  
"Russian made, no rifling." Tony stopped what he was doing.  
  
"Really."  
  
"Natasha says that he's called the Winter Soldier, and that he's practically a ghost. I saw him, Tony, he's incredibly strong, and he's dangerous."  
  
"And he's gunning for Darcy?"  
  
"Or he's being used by someone gunning for Darcy. Tell me you've left the Tower."  
  
"We have, don't worry. We bugged out as soon as we heard about the traffic chase."  
  
"Good. Listen…I may or may not be on America's most wanted listed right now."  
  
"You what?"  
  
"It doesn't matter, we have a lead, Natasha and I are headed out to Fort LeHigh."  
  
"Steve…that facility has been abandoned for decades."  
  
"Maybe officially. Unofficially, there's still something going on there, and we're going to find it."  
  
"I'll see if I can get you any information, at least I'll have JARVIS hack into all the CCTV in Washington, maybe we can get some more footage of your assassin for you."  
  
"That'd be great, though he'll probably be wearing a mask."  
  
"Better than nothing. Did you want me to get Darcy, she's resting but…"  
  
"I would love nothing more, but I have to go hotwire a car."  
  
Tony blinked.  
  
"I'm sure there's a comment to be made here about the fact that you're the poster boy for upholding the law, but right now I'm just too awed by the fact that you've said that out loud."  
  
"Thanks. Just…tell her that I'm okay?"  
  
"Will do."  
  
"Thanks. I don't know when I'll get a chance to talk to you again, but I'm keeping this phone with me."  
  
"Good. Be careful, alright? I don't want to have to tell Lewis you aren't coming home."  
  
"I will."  
  
Later, when JARVIS reported that Fort LeHigh had been hit and completely destroyed by an airstrike, Tony debated on whether or not to tell Darcy, and ultimately decided that since no bodies had been recovered and Steve and Natasha were still listed on all Agencies' APB lists, what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her. He gambled that he could take whatever she dished out if she did find out.  
  
* * *  
  
The mansion was huge, and even with Stark and his undeniable presence filling the place, she still felt very alone. Pepper was ensconced in a room that JARVIS had informed her was Howard Stark's old office. Jane and Thor had stayed in New York with Dr. Banner, and she missed having more than Stark and Barton to talk to.  
  
Especially since Barton was mostly keeping on alert and patrolling the perimeter of the property, testing the security systems. Barton was pretty sure that SHIELD had been compromised, and he was taking it kind of personally.  
  
Information about what was happening in Washington was sketchy at best. All of the news stations were running some bullshit about Steve being wanted for murder, but even the newsreaders were pretty skeptical about it. The last footage she'd seen of him had been a shaky cell video of him crashing into a concourse outside of a building she knew as the Triskelion.  
  
Stark said that he'd called briefly and was fine, and she was mildly annoyed that she hadn't been woken for the call, though she did understand that time was of the essence.  
  
Worried for Steve, she was sitting in the room with Pepper and Stark while he worked on getting CCTV from Washington up and running.  
  
“My ass, Fury’s dead. I won’t believe it until I watch his corpse get buried in a grave. The man is far too smart for that.” He muttered to himself.  
  
“Tony…” Pepper chided.  
  
“There, we're tapped into all the feeds coming out of Washington.” Darcy sat up a little straighter.  
  
“Okay, here we go.” The space above the floor sparked with a million images from security cameras news feeds and CCTVs from Washington, and Tony filtered through them until he located Steve. It wasn’t hard. He was in the middle of a firefight in downtown Washington, the only way he might have been easier to find was if he'd been wearing his uniform.  
  
“Look’s like Steve’s got a new friend. One that comes with some impressive looking toys I might add.” A file titled ‘Falcon’ popped next to a close up of the man’s face. Sam Wilson, pararescue, two tours of duty, honorably discharged. An incident report detailing the theft of some military equipment also popped up. Project Falcon looked like the kind of thing that science fiction fans only dream of, but she lived in a world of superheroes and gods, of course a man could fly with mechanical wings.  
  
“Those are really shiny; I’d like to get a good look at those when they come home. We’ve got room for him in the Tower,” Stark was muttering, “hello, who’s this? This must be the assassin and he's so very helpfully taken off his mask, let’s see if we can get an ID on him now. He looks familiar; JARVIS run facial recognition against our databases.”  
  
A frame appeared with a face on it that made Darcy inhale sharply. She heard JARVIS agreeing with Stark in the back of her mind, but her world shrank down to just the image of the assassin’s face, and then she couldn’t breathe.  
  
“Darcy? Sweetheart, are you alright?” Dimly, she heard Pepper’s voice speaking to her.  
  
“Tony. Stop talking for a moment. Honey what is it? Do you know who that is?” She blinked rapidly, trying to catch her breath, and failing.  
  
“That’s…that’s…I don’t understand…” She tried, and suddenly Stark was in front of her, hands on either side of her face, forcing her to look at him.  
  
“Lewis. Focus, Lewis, I need you to focus. Listen to my voice, focus on it, have you got that?” She nodded, locking eyes with him. “I need you to breathe, okay. Let’s start there.”  
  
She breathed, sucking air into her lungs almost greedily. She breathed out slowly, noting that Stark was doing it with her, and the crazy thought that this was like a Lamaze class almost sent her into hysterical laughter.  
  
“Good girl. Now, how do you know him?”  
  
“He’s….” She looked down at her baby bump, and heard Pepper’s sharp intake of breath.  
  
“He’s the man you met in Greece.” Stark finished her sentence, and she nodded.  
  
“Yes. He’s Junior’s biological father.” She heard Pepper swear softly. Stark held her gaze for a moment, then he sat back on his heels and took his hands away from her face.  
  
“I need you to tell me everything that you remember about him.” Darcy closed her eyes, and felt Pepper reaching out to take her hand, she let her, using her presence as an anchor.  
  
“I met him on the ferry to Greece. He was the only other person travelling alone; everyone else was traveling as couples, families. Sure, he looked a bit dangerous, but he was also so lonely, I could see it in every line of his body sitting there on the boat. That was why I approached him. He told me that his name was --”  
  
 _“James.” He sounded surprised, like he hadn’t actually planned on telling her his name, or talking to her at all. He still looked a bit dangerous up close, the metal arm told her that she was probably not far off thinking that this guy had a story. In the back of her mind she wondered if his arm was Stark tech, or if it was someone else._  
  
 _“Hi James, my name is Darcy.”_  
  
 _“Darcy…you are staying on the island?”_  
  
 _“Yep. I’m finishing up a poor man’s tour of Europe, my boss lady is setting up her new science lab in London, but she wanted some quality time with her mom while she waits for all her shit to arrive from Norway. So, since I’d be sitting on my hands waiting, I figured I’d take the opportunity for a bit of a vacation.”_  
  
 _“And has it been a…nice vacation?”_  
  
 _“It has, though there’s always room for improvement.” He arched an eyebrow at her, and a small smirk formed on his face._  
  
 _“You have something in mind?”_  
  
 _“Well…if you’re not too busy, maybe you’d like to meet me for a drink? This guide says that there are fabulous bars in town here.”_  
  
 _“There are. But…I’m not exactly a socializing type of person.” She shrugged._  
  
 _“So we won’t socialize, we’ll just drink.”_  
  
 _He still didn’t look convinced, so she turned her guide to he could see the picture._  
  
 _“You know where this bar is?” He nodded._  
  
 _“Okay. I will be there at 9 tonight. If you feel like a drink, you are welcome to come and find me. If not, then my broken heart and I will just have to find someone else to talk to.”_  
  
Darcy opened her eyes and found both Pepper and Stark watching her intently.  
  
“He came to the bar that night, and then he invited me back to a villa he was staying in on the coast. I spent the rest of my vacation there with him. He was a flirt, had a wicked sense of humor, maybe a little dark around the edges, but he was more ‘rebel’ than ‘assassin’. The man that I got to know wasn’t a killer.” Pepper nodded sagely, an empathetic expression on her face.  
  
"I’m sure there’s an explanation, Darcy.” She said. Darcy breathed deeply and leaned back into the sofa.  
  
“We never talked about the prosthetic arm. Our deal was that we wouldn’t talk about our pasts while we were together. He practically screamed ‘soldier’. I just assumed he’d lost it in a battle somewhere and had really good tech connections. I’d seen enough crazy things already… Norse gods falling from the sky, robots of doom in the desert, aliens invading New York City… a guy with a metal arm doesn’t even rate on my ‘weird-shit-o-meter’. But, he didn’t like to touch me with it; he’d maybe take my hand with it, if he didn’t stop to think about it first. I got the feeling that he didn’t like the arm very much.”  
  
“And he told you that his name was James?” Stark asked.  
  
“Yes. And before you ask, I don’t think he was lying about that. He was surprised when he said it; I thought maybe he was just surprised that he was talking to me, but now that I think about it…. It wasn’t a calculated lie, the way he said it, it was more like he was surprised that it was his name. Like he didn’t know that it was his name until he said it.”  
  
“JARVIS, filter that facial recognition with the name ‘James’.” Stark ordered, and JARVIS intoned an affirmative. Pepper squeezed her hand.  
  
“We’ll figure this out.” She offered, and Darcy smiled weakly.  
  
She didn’t know what to think now. She’d been so sure that she’d never see James again, he’d disappeared just like he’d told her he probably would. Now he was trying to kill the man that she’d fallen more in love with than she’d ever thought possible? This was some kind of nightmare, and waking up from it didn’t seem like it was a possibility anytime soon.  
  
“Sir, I have a 99% match in facial recognition algorithms; however you may not believe the results.”  
  
“Doesn’t matter, bring them up JARVIS.” A second screen popped up next to the capture of the assassin’s face, an old army file that made Darcy swear sharply when she saw the man that he was pictured with.  
  
“Fucking hell.”  
  
“Son of a bitch.” Stark swore with her.  
  
“What? Who is that?” Pepper asked. Darcy closed her eyes again. The puzzle pieces were falling together, but the picture was batshit insane. Was this actually happening, or had she fallen into some kind of rabbit hole?  
  
“That's Bucky. Steve talks about him all the time. He was his best friend, growing up in Brooklyn. Up until today, he thought that he was dead.” Tony moved away from them, but picked up the story.  
  
“James Barnes was the only one of Cap’s team who was killed in action. Dad had a few stories about him too. Dad flew Cap into enemy territory because there was a chance that Barnes been taken captive by Hydra. Steve rescued him, and four hundred other men from Hydra’s base, and burned it to the ground.”  
  
“He lost Bucky on a later mission, the train that they captured the scientist Armin Zola from. He fell from the moving train into a deep ravine, he shouldn’t have survived. No normal human could have survived that fall.” Darcy continued.  
  
“That means that Barnes was not a normal human. Steve’s report from back then said that Hydra had been experimenting on the men they captured, most of them died, but Barnes was in the midst of being subjected to something when Steve got to him. It must have been some form of Erskine’s serum. It’s no secret that Schmidt was trying to replicate it in order to build his own army.”  
  
“Someone must have gotten to him, pulled him out of that ravine...turned him into…I don’t even know, definitely not the man that Steve knew.” Darcy pressed her hands into her eyes and shuddered. Pepper folded her into an embrace.  
  
“He’s seen him, Pepper. He knows that he’s alive…he told me they were like brothers…what is this going to do to him?”  
  
“I don’t know, sweetheart, I don’t know.”  
  
“How have you not seen a picture of him before now, Lewis? If Steve talks about him all the time…”  
  
“Yeah, and it hurts Steve to think about him most of the time. It didn’t matter if I knew what the man looked like, and I’m not going to ask him to dredge up painful memories out of idle curiosity.”  
  
“That week with you must have been right before his puppeteers pulled the strings back. There’s a big time lag though, between then and when he's surfaced again, I wonder what he was doing…”  
  
“Tony, you’re not helping, see if you can get a message to Steve about this, it might help. Come on Darcy, you should go lie down for a bit, try to clear your head.” Pepper coaxed her up and out of the room, while Tony started fiddling with his computers again.  
  
* * *  
  
“Pepper, I’m scared.” She said, as the other woman helped her to get her shoes off.  
  
“You’re safe here, Darcy.”  
  
“I know that…that’s not what I mean. I’m not afraid that James is going to turn up and try to kill me. If he did, you know that I would tase him at full strength without a second thought. But…what does this mean for Steve? If by some miracle, the man that he knew is still in there, and he gets him back…what if James wants to be a part of the baby’s life? I don’t want Steve to feel like he doesn’t have a place, he has more of a place, he’s been here with me, and he chose to be here with me, even when he didn’t have to.”  
  
“You’re not going to lose Steve, Darcy. Steve loves you, and he loves that baby, and whether or not this other man wants to be a part of it, that’s something that you’ll all figure out together.”  
  
“I want to talk to him.”  
  
"We'll get him on the line and we'll talk to him as soon as we can, okay?"  
  
"I need Jane."  
  
"We'll get her here for you."  Pepper patted her shoulder as she pulled a blanket up over her, and brushed her hair back in a gesture that reminded her a lot of her dad.  
  
"I wish my dad was here.  He might not know what to do, but he'd make me feel better." She sighed.  Pepper gave her a smile.  
  
"Well..I know we're not him, sweetheart, but we'll do our best."  
  
Darcy managed to smile back.  
  
"Hey...have I thanked you?  Because I should thank you for being generally awesome."  
  
"We know, honey, don't worry."   



	12. Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fallout of discovering that the guy trying to kill Captain America is also Darcy's baby-daddy.

Chapter 11  
  
Steve felt the Starkphone vibrate somewhere between realizing that the man who was trying to kill them was his oldest and closest friend, and being forced into the back of a van at the end of the barrel of a gun.    
  
He didn't get a chance to look at it until much later.  After finding out that Nick Fury was still alive and subsequently declaring war on Hydra, he was able to find a moment to himself to see the message he had received.    
  
For a moment, he just stared at the screen, trying to let it seep into his brain.  
  
 _mystery guest = baby daddy, call asap_.  
  
It took him more than a few minutes to fully understand what Tony was talking about.  When he finally remembered the connection he'd made to the man who'd broken into Darcy's place and 'The Winter Soldier’, he was pretty sure that his heart stopped beating for a moment.  
  
His first instinct was to think it impossible.  A crazy mistake.  But even as his mind fought against it...Darcy said that the man she'd been with in Greece had been named James.  She had also said that he called her 'doll', just like Steve did, although for him it was a holdover from his first lifetime.  But if 'James' was Bucky...Bucky who didn't remember that he was Bucky, didn't know Steve, and wasn't himself at all...maybe that was all that was left of him.  
  
And if Bucky was Junior's real father...then suddenly a whole lot of what was happening to Darcy made sense.  Hydra had Bucky now, and if they were using him as their own private assassin, they wouldn't want anyone getting too close to him.  The only problem was that it was now several months since Darcy had been an influence on him, why were they trying to eliminate her now?  He had the uncomfortable thought that maybe that night in the alley hadn't been the only time they had tried something.  
  
But, if Bucky couldn't remember anything about his past, did that mean that he remembered Greece?  Did he know that Darcy was carrying his child?  And god...Darcy was carrying Bucky's baby?  All this time..rationally he knew that there was no way either of them could have known the connection.  As much as he'd told Darcy about Bucky, she'd never seen a picture of him, had never asked to see pictures of him, she would have had no idea what he looked like.  And objectively, a man named James who called her doll could have been anyone, and up until a few short hours ago, Bucky had been long dead.  It only made more sense now, knowing what he knew.    
  
He still felt like he should have made the connection sooner.    
  
He flipped open the phone.  
  
"JARVIS, are you still there?"  
  
"Yes, Captain.  Would you like me to connect you to Mr. Stark?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Very good."    
  
There was a chime, and Tony's face appeared on the screen.  
  
"Tony."  
  
"Steve!  Holy shit, where are you?”  
   
“A secret SHIELD base.  Maria Hill infiltrated the agents assigned to capture us and got us out of there.”  
   
“And everyone’s okay?”  
   
“Natasha took a bullet to the shoulder, but she’ll live.  Otherwise, we’re fine.  Tony…the message you sent me….”  
  
“I pulled up all the feeds I could get out of Washington and found you guys on it, in the middle of the fight with your assassin.  When he revealed his face, I was able to pull him up on the screens and start looking for an ID on him.  Lewis was in the room, and she recognized him straight away.  Then of course, JARVIS pulled up his old Army records and photos, and it just got even weirder.”  
   
“Is she alright?”  
   
“She had to go lie down, and we’re trucking Foster in to be with her, but she’ll be fine.  JARVIS is keeping an eye on her, medically speaking.”  
  
   
Steve blinked, trying to decide if he thought the AI being able to monitor Darcy’s medical condition was really weird or not.  Then he decided that he didn’t care, as long as she was in good hands, it didn’t matter.       
   
“Is she still sleeping?”  
   
“Pepper’s already getting her.  When JARVIS said you were on the line, we figured you would want to talk to her.  She wants to talk to you.  This has shaken her up, I’ve never seen her like that, she’s usually the one that has to talk me down out of an episode.”  
   
Before Steve had a chance to worry about what that meant there was a flurry of movement to the side of the room, and an indignant yelp when Tony was shoved out of the way.  A blur of brown hair turned into Darcy, staring worriedly at him, a hand outstretched like she wanted to reach through the screen for him.  He wanted to do the same thing.  
   
“Steve, you’re okay?”  She breathed.  Behind her, he could see Pepper manhandling Tony out of the room.  
   
“I’m fine, doll…are you okay?”  
   
“I’m…I’m a lot shaken up, to tell the truth.”  
   
“I don’t doubt it.  Tony sent me a message…”  
   
“Steve…I swear, if I had had any clue that Junior’s father was your Bucky…”  
   
“Oh honey…there’s no way you could have known, don’t do that to yourself.  But…I know the feeling, I keep thinking I should have made the connection, but I also keep having to tell myself that I couldn’t have known either.”  
   
“Steve…in Greece, the man that I knew…he wasn’t a killer.  Not like this.”     
   
“I can believe that.  They’ve done something to him, Darcy.  He doesn’t remember me, he doesn’t…he’s not Bucky, right now.”  
   
“Remember I said it felt like he was trying to escape something?  Being an assassin would be a pretty big something to be trying to escape from.  Especially if an evil covert faction has been messing with his head.  There must be some part of him that still remembers that he’s not a killer.”  
   
“I just can’t believe…all this time, I’ve thought he was dead…and now we find out that you’re carrying his baby…it’s just…”  
   
“I know,” she blinked and offered him a wan smile, “my life, right?  The impossible becomes possible.”  
   
Steve breathed deeply in an attempt to get himself under control.  
   
“Steve…” she paused, biting her lip and looking away for a brief moment.  When she looked back, there was a haunted look in her eyes, fearful and vulnerable, and he really didn’t want to be having this conversation over a video connection.  
“None of this changes how I feel, Steve.  Whatever I had with him, it didn’t have a chance to go anywhere, and I don’t want to see if it could.  I love you, and I want you to come home.”  
   
Steve nodded and traced her face with the tip of his finger.  He saw her reach out a hand at her end too.  
   
“Understood, doll, I love you too.”  
   
“Good.  You’re going to bring him back.”  It wasn’t a question, Darcy knew him too well.  
   
“I have to try.”  
  
“Be careful, please?  Come home soon?”  
   
“As soon as I can, Darcy, I promise.  You’ll stay safe right?”  
   
“Of course I will.  Barton’s tightening security as we speak.  By that I mean he’s hanging out in a tree outside my bedroom window because JARVIS has just about everything else under control, and there’s nothing else for him to do now that he’s laid out all of his Scooby Doo traps.”  
   
Steve couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up from his chest.  They were in the middle of probably the tensest situation he’d been in since he watched Tony fly a nuclear missile into space, and she could still make him laugh.  He’d needed it.  
   
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to whatever screen she was using, making him smile.  
   
“Tony’s going to complain about that.”  
   
“Stark can suck it.”  
   
“I’ll see you soon, I promise.”  
   
“I am holding you to it, soldier.”  
   
They said their goodbyes, and Steve put the phone away.  He turned and leaned against the dam wall, staring out at what should have been a spectacular view.  All he could see was Bucky’s blank gaze and hear Darcy’s voice ringing in his head.  
   
‘You’re going to bring him back.’  
   
He was the only one who could bring Bucky Barnes back.  All the memories that they had together, that couldn’t all be gone.  Bucky was his friend, he had been there for him when he had needed him.  Unexpectedly the memory that came to mind the most was the day of his mother’s funeral, when Bucky had told him that he didn’t have to make it on his own.  
   
“I’m with you ‘til the end of the line.”  
   
Darcy had met a man that was a lot like the man Bucky had been; he was still there somewhere.  Steve was determined to find him, and bring him home again.  
   
* * *  
   
“Holy shit, what did that woman do?”  Tony muttered, standing in front his display feeds and jabbing furiously at one of the screens.  
   
“What?” Pepper asked, “What’s happened?”  
   
“There is a flood of confidential SHIELD information currently trending on the internet.  It’s everywhere, going viral as we’re sitting here with our thumbs up our asses.  Apparently, SHIELD has been HYDRA the whole time…or parts of it have been HYDRA, at the moment it’s hard to tell which parts though, I knew there was a reason I didn’t trust them.”  
   
“You’re not serious.”  
   
“I am very serious.  It’s all here in this data stream that’s been released all over the internet.  That’s got Romanov written all over it, she’s wily, that one.  What was HYDRA’s motto, ‘we grow in the dark?’  By releasing all of this to the internet, she’s exposing them to the world.  It’s everything, all their ops, all their files on everything that they have on everyone…including herself, oh, she is a very bad woman.  But, we knew that already of course.”  
   
“What the hell is going on out there, Tony?”  
   
“I don’t know, but it’s getting a lot of people very excited.  JARVIS, filter for all our names, everyone associated with the Avengers, I want to know what they have on us.”  
   
“Yes sir.”  
   
Pepper suddenly gasped and gripped his arm tightly.  
   
“Tony!”  
   
“What?”  
   
She pointed at a screen that was showing three of SHIELD’s helicarriers in the air, erupting into a series of explosions as they opened fire on one another.  
   
“Well…that’s different.  JARVIS, I want as many eyes on that as we can get, one of ours is in that mess somewhere.”  
   
The views on most of the screens changed to a multiview of the carnage going on in the airspace above the Potomac.       
   
“Tony, the Triskellion.”  Pepper pointed to one of the other screens, where the SHIELD stronghold was also exploding.  A helicopter swung around the side, and a man jumped from one of the windows above forty floors, only to be caught by someone in the helicopter.  At the last second, his face was clear, and Sam Wilson would live to see another fight.  
   
Tony and Pepper both turned to where the helicarriers were in the middle of crashing back down to the ground.  They hadn’t gotten up far, but they were high enough that a fall could kill a super soldier.  When all three of them exploded at the same time, they had to shield their eyes from how bright it was even through the feeds.  
   
There was a sharp cry from behind them, and Pepper turned to find Darcy standing in the door to the room, a hand pressed over her mouth and her eyes wide with horror.  
   
“Oh sweetheart…”  
   
Tony nudged her in Darcy’s direction, and Pepper regained her equilibrium, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her out.  
   
“I’m sure he’s fine, come on, let’s go and wait for Jane…”  
   
Tony watched them go.  
   
“JARVIS.”  
   
“Yes sir.”  
   
“Find more feeds, more footage, any footage you can get.  If the action went down on those helicarriers, Steve was there.  Find him.”  
   
“Yes sir, of course.”  
   
  
* * *  
   
   
Jane found her a few hours after the bottom dropped out of her world.  
   
“Darcy?” she called through the door, “can I come in?”  
   
“It’s not locked.”  Darcy told her.  Jane came into the bedroom and made her way over to the corner that Darcy had folded herself into.  She sat down facing her, cross legged.  
   
“You’re worried about Steve.”  
   
Darcy nodded.  When she had seen the explosions happening on the screens she was sure that her heart had stopped in her chest.  She rubbed at her belly, soothing a few twinges.       
   
“We can’t find him.  And there’s nobody left at SHIELD to call for help.”  
   
“I’m sure he’s fine.”  
   
“He fell, Jane.  JARVIS was able to get enough footage to show that.  It’s a long way down, he’s not dead, but he may be hurt and…”  
   
“You know that he’s not dead?”  
  
“You know that completely ridiculous notion that you’ll know when someone you love is in danger?  I felt that when my dad was killed.  I haven’t felt it with Steve.  He’s got to be alive, but alive and okay are two different things.  He could be seriously hurt, or he could have been captured…did anyone brief you on the ‘Winter Soldier’?”  Darcy looked up to watch Jane’s face.  
   
“Stark said you identified him as Junior’s father.”  
   
Darcy nodded.  
   
“He’s also Steve’s friend.  Like, I’m talking childhood friend here, Jane.  Bucky Barnes was killed on a mission in 1945.  Steve’s carried his death with him ever since, and now…what kind of guilt is he going to feel now that he knows what really happened to him?  He already feels guilty for not being able to save him, for not being able to go back for him…if he had been…all of this…”  
   
Jane reached out and grasped her shoulders with firm hands.  
   
“It wouldn’t be any different, Darcy.  They would have found somebody else.  Someone that Steve didn’t have that connection with.  They would have found someone that he wouldn’t have been able to reach.  The only thing that would be different…you wouldn’t have Junior.”  
   
Darcy froze, letting that sink in.   She had staunchly maintained that she would not trade what she shared with ‘James’ in Greece.  She didn’t regret it, and she never would.   The same went for the baby; she’d refused to consider any other course of action but to keep her.  That still held, more so now, knowing exactly who the father really was, and all the connections that there were.  Junior was even more special now than he had been before. She would trade just about anything to spare Steve some of what he had to be feeling, but Junior was non-negotiable.  
   
“You’re right,” she murmured, “you’re always right.  Just…tell me that it’s going to be okay?  That I’m going to wake up one day and Steve is going to be there and he’s going to be fine?”  
   
Jane pulled her into a tight hug and rocked her back and forth.  
   
“It’s going to be okay, Darcy.  You’re going to wake up one day soon, and Steve is going to be here, and he’s going to be fine.  They’re both going to be fine.”  
   
Darcy shuddered once in her arms and pressed her face into her shoulder gratefully.  
   
“Thank you.”  
   
“Always, Darcy.”  
   
Suddenly Darcy remembered that with everything that had gone down, all of Jane’s work was in danger.  
   
“Jane, all your research!  If HYDRA has it…”  
   
“They don’t.”  
   
“Are you sure?”  
   
“Yes.  My agreement with SHIELD; that I read through thoroughly before signing, was that my files would only be shared once I felt there was sufficient information to share.”  Her eyes danced with a wickedness that was usually reserved for their binge drinking fests.  “We uh…never got to that point.  All of my stuff is ‘my eyes only’ on my personal computer and backed up with two USB drives kept in a safe that only myself and JARVIS have access to, and JARVIS has a back up of everything bar the most recent progress in an encrypted file.  They have nothing.”  
   
“Really?”  
   
“Yes, really.  You know that I’ve never trusted them, not since they stormed in and stole everything.  I never really trusted that they gave it all back.  And now they’re compromised, so I’m sticking with Stark.  Pepper sent me an offer letter on the drive here.  I signed it five minutes ago.  Outside of you, Thor and anyone connected to the Avengers, the only people I’m willing to trust are the people that Stark has vetted up and down, and right now that list is really, really small.”    
   
Darcy breathed a sigh.  
   
“Where’s Thor?”  She asked.  Jane patted her shoulder.  
   
“Out looking for Steve; he was very adamant that he needed to ‘aid in the search for his brother in arms’.  I think he was also feeling generally useless with all of this intrigue going on.  Give him space elves and convergences and he’s good to go, but underhanded behind the scenes bad guys, he doesn’t have anyone he can swing his hammer at.”  
   
Darcy was extremely touched by the gesture.  She was interrupted from expressing it though, by JARVIS chiming in.     
   
“Miss Lewis, Dr. Foster, your presence is requested in the living area, we have located Captain Rogers.”  
   
* * *  
   
“He’s in the hospital?  What hospital?”  Darcy asked, one hand on her hip, and the other pressed against where her belly was still sending off periodic twinges.  
   
“One in Washington, JARVIS was able to get surveillance, and I hacked their server.  He’s going to be fine.  Wilson is with him, and Natasha Romanov has secured his room, no one except the treating doctor knows that they’ve got Captain America in there.  He’s healing fine.”  
   
“Healing.  As in, he’s been injured.  What happened to him?”  
   
“You’re in a mood, woman.  Fine, he had a couple of gunshot wounds, but they’ve pulled out the bullets and he’s going to be fine, okay?”  
   
Darcy swayed and Jane darted over to her side and kept her from falling down.  She led her over to a sofa and made her sit down.  Pepper brought her water, and Barton shoved a pillow behind her.  She wasn’t entirely sure where he’d appeared from.  
   
Something beeped, and JARVIS actually sounded surprised when he spoke.  
   
“Sir, I believe I have discovered something regarding Miss Lewis.”  
  
Darcy snapped her head around.  
   
“About me?  What about me?”  
   
Several screens popped up one after the other, but she couldn’t see them, Stark was in her way, speeding reading them with a steady stream of curses.  
   
“Jesus…Foster, I think you saved her life.”  
   
Jane stiffened.  
  
“What are you talking about?”  
   
“Alexander Pierce put out a kill order on her.”  
   
Darcy blinked rapidly, and rubbed absently at her belly again.  
   
“Who is Alexander Pierce, and why in fresh hell would he put out a kill order on me?”  
   
“Because of this.”  
   
A photo appeared a bird’s eye view of two people, a man and a woman on a beach.  The woman was clearly her, her face was turned toward the camera.  The man was only identifiable by the metal prosthetic that was his right arm.  Darcy’s blood ran cold.  
   
“That was James and I together in Greece.”  
   
“You had a fling with their prized asset.  You made him remember that he was a human being, and they couldn’t have that.  They’ve done it before.”  
   
“What?”  She stared as a short series of photos appeared next to their picture, less than a half a dozen women, all marked as deceased.  “Oh my god…”  
   
A man’s photo appeared next, the file said he was this Alexander Pierce.  She didn’t recognize him, and she said as much.  Stark shrugged.  
   
“I’ve never met him either, but he was the guy higher up than Fury.  World Security Council.”  
   
“And he’s the one that ordered a hit on me?”  Her voice was shrill and panicked, her control over the situation was fast spiraling out of control.  
   
“The order to hire you into SHIELD was signed by Pierce, filtered down through channels.  Once signed on, you were supposed to be involved in a ‘training accident’.  But, since Foster refused to give you up, and you subsequently signed an employment agreement with Stark Industries, he…had to get a little creative.”  
   
“He hired the two thugs from the alley.”  Darcy breathed.  
   
“When we were tracing back the server that the emails to those deadbeats came from, it pinged around the world twice over before it disappeared.  Someone in SHIELD or the WSC would have the connections to be able to do that.  Only he wasn’t as smart as he thinks he is, all of the emails that he sent were still stored on the server.  He used a dummy email account, but it’s all traceable back to his user ID.  He hired them to shoot you and make it look like you were killed in a random New York mugging gone wrong.”  
   
Darcy’s brain kicked into hyperdrive.  
   
“Did he know that I was pregnant?”  
   
Stark and Pepper traded a look, and he turned around to sit on the floor in front of her.  
   
“He did.  He didn’t care.  He knew that the baby was Barnes’s, but whatever interest that HYDRA may have had in his progeny was outweighed by the desire to make sure that they took out all his ties to his humanity.”  
   
“Jesus fuck.”  Darcy muttered.  “So…who shot them then?  You guys all thought it was a third accomplice who got trigger happy and had bad aim, which I will tell you now, is not the case, because he hit both of them exactly where it would do the most immediate damage.”  
   
“Steve and I have already talked about that.  Darcy, the bullets that killed those two guys are the same kind of bullets that killed Nick Fury.  Barnes saved your life in that alley.”  
   
She inhaled sharply and covered her mouth with a hand.  Jane rubbed her back.  
   
“What does that mean?  That he remembers her?”  Jane asked.  Tony shrugged and got back to his feet.  
   
“I can’t answer that, we don’t know what else has been done to him.   There’s some information on him out there now, but most of it is all legitimate SHIELD reports after a killing that was attributed to ‘The Winter Soldier’.”  
   
“If he did, then that must mean something, maybe it’s an advantage that we have.”  Pepper said.  Jane started talking, but Darcy’s brain was still whirring.  Something in the way that Stark had spoken wasn’t sitting right in her head.  She shook it, and held up a hand over the opinions being tossed around.  
   
“Stark, you said ‘didn’t’ and ‘had’ as in, the past tense.  They didn’t care that I was pregnant.  What’s changed?”  
   
He turned slowly from his computer screens and met her eyes.  
   
“There’s a third order.  It’s still active.”  
   
Darcy could just about feel all of the blood draining from her face.  
   
“What is it?”  
   
“There’s a team assembled somewhere out there.  Right now, they don’t know where you are, but as soon as they have a location, their orders are to move in, destroy everything, and bring you back to the Triskellion.  They want the baby now.  Once they have you, they’ll induce labour, and then they’ll kill you."  
   
Darcy blinked, then her vision seemed to grey out and she threw up on his shoes.  
   
The room erupted into chatter, Barton was swearing fluently in three different languages behind her, Jane was shouting over him, and Pepper was trying to be the calm voice in the room, which only led to her shouting over both of them.  
   
She wiped her mouth on her sleeve and waved her hand around.  
   
“Stop it!  Shut up for a second!”  She yelled, silencing them.  
   
“Darcy…you’re safe here.”  Pepper assured her.  She nodded.  
   
“I know.  But I can’t spend the rest of my life here.  How have they been keeping tabs on me?”  
   
“Your phone.”  
   
She rolled her eyes.  Of course her phone, the one that she’d had since before New Mexico, and that had been searched thoroughly by a SHIELD agent when they’d been ‘debriefed’.  How simple would it have been to take down her number, stash it away in her file?  If she disappeared and never came onto their radar again, it took so little time to do, but if she became more interesting later, they’d have it on file.  And of course, she had to go and become more interesting.  
   
“I haven’t even turned it on since we left the city.  In the tower, I wasn’t using it, but it was a fair assumption that that’s where I’d be.”  
   
“And they raided the tower not long before Washington happened.”  
   
“They what?”  
   
“No one was hurt, JARVIS took care of them all.  But they know that we weren’t in the Tower, and now they have no idea where to look for you.”  
   
“Unless I use my phone.”  
   
“Unless you use your phone.  As soon as you do, they’ll know where you are and that team will come in and do their best to take you out of here.”  
   
“We’ll get you a new phone, Darcy.”  Jane said firmly.  “We’ll get rid of that one, Thor can smash it with his hammer.”  Darcy turned and smiled gently at her.  
  
“That won’t change the fact that there’s still a team out there waiting to kidnap me, take my baby and kill me.  They’ll know what I look like.  What if we pass one of them on the street?   I won’t live like that, Jane.  I won’t make my baby live like that.”  
   
Pepper sat down on her other side and handed her back her glass of water.  
   
“What are you thinking?”  She asked her.  Darcy swallowed.  
   
“Let them come.”  
  
The room erupted into shouting again.  And she waved her hands around again, dousing Barton and Stark with water.  
   
“Listen to me!  We know they’re out there.  This place is defensible, with enough forethought we can keep ahead of them and take them out.  Then the order will have failed, and there’s no one to make another one, right?”  
   
“Not as far as we know.  With their soldier in the wind, they’ll be more concerned about him.”  Tony agreed.  
   
“Okay.  Then we’ll make a plan, and we’ll call Steve.  We don’t have a choice here.”  
   
Pepper frowned, and Jane spoke up.  
  
“There’s always a choice, Darcy.”  
   
“Not this time.  We can defend ourselves here, we can’t on the road.”  
   
“But…”  
   
“Jane…there’s no choice.  We can’t leave now; my water broke about two minutes ago.”  
  
   
* * *  
  
   
After the room calmed down again, Stark sat down in front of her on the floor.    
   
“What’s your plan, Lewis?”  
   
“If they’re monitoring my phone, they’ll pick up the signal that I send to Steve to tell him I’m in labour.  They’ll come and they’ll try to burn the place down.   So, we don’t let them do that.  What are our assets?”  
   
“The perimeter is secured with an electronic system that JARVIS has full control over.”  
   
“Someone they work with knows how to jerry-rig a pedometer into a signal blocker.  They’ll get past  JARVIS eventually.” Darcy pointed out.     
   
“I’ve set up pressure traps at random points on the grounds.  I’ve got all my arrows, I’ll find a nice high branch and take out the ones that get past the fences.”  Barton was still pacing back and forth behind them.    
   
“I’ve got half a suit built.  It could do with some mid cycle testing.”  Stark was grinning manically.  
   
“There’s a bunker underground,” Pepper offered, “its part of the reason that we came here.  It’s secure, it was built as a shelter during the cold war.  Nothing gets in there that we don’t want to.”  
   
For a moment, she looked more than fierce, and Darcy decided that she never, ever, wanted to get on Pepper Potts’ bad side.  The look faded after a moment, and she was back to being calm collected.      
   
“There are medical supplies down there that can help you get through some of this, but you’ll need proper medical attention.”  
   
“Medical is set to come to her if she sends her alert and she’s not at the Tower.”  
   
“Which only complicates this further.  As soon as she sends out the alert, everything is going to converge on this house.  It could blow up in our faces.”  Pepper reasoned.  
   
“We’ll call Steve and Medical separately, and give them a head start.  Then we’ll send out the ‘alert’ that will bring in the heavy shit.”  Stark answered her, his eyes not leaving Darcy’s face.  She nodded, and winced when a contraction twanged through her abdomen.  Jane checked her watch.  
   
“What about Thor?”  Pepper asked.  Jane’s eyes flicked up from her watch.  
  
“We can get him here.  He was looking for Steve.”  
   
“We need Bruce.  Send him after Bruce.”  Darcy said.  Jane blinked.  
   
“Why Bruce?”  
   
“Because, if Bucky Barnes was treated with a serum like the one that Steve volunteered for, Bruce is the leading expert on it and its effects.”  Stark answered.  
   
“I need to know if Junior’s been affected by the serum.  Bruce knows what to look for.  Also, while having Thor here would be great, having both of them here would be better.  If they can get here in time, great, if not, then as soon as possible will have to do.”  She frowned, struck by a thought.   “Has he got a phone?  I mean, can we reach him?”  
   
Jane patted her arm.  
   
“Yes, he’s got a phone.  I’ll call him and get him on it.  Where did Bruce go?”  
   
Stark shrugged.  
   
“When he goes on sabbatical, he kind of prefers solitude.”  
"If it helps, the jet was chartered for South America." Pepper added.    
“I'll tell him where to start. He can probably ask Heimdall for some help, if he needs to.”  
   
“Okay.  I’d like to go on record that this plan is nuts.”  Stark said, and Darcy raised her eyebrows at him.  
   
“Then why are you sitting there grinning like a maniac and agreeing to all of this?”  
   
“Because its nuts enough that it might work, and you’re right.  There aren’t any other choices.  Tell me when you want to call Steve.”  
   
“Let’s call Medical first.  I want a rundown of what I can do for myself before they get here.”  
   
Pepper started dialing and Jane stood up, producing her phone.  
  
“I’m calling Thor, and I’m getting pillows and blankets together.”  
   
Barton appeared in front of her, the first time she'd actually looked right at him since she'd come into the room.  He stared into her eyes and then, when it seemed like he saw what he needed there, he nodded.  
   
"Alright spitfire, we'll do it your way.  I'm going to go scout some trees."    


	13. Baby Landings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baby finally arrives amid a flurry of excitement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Sarah for the super quick Beta so that I could leave you folks with a parting gift before I go on vacation. 
> 
> I would also like to take a moment to thank everyone who has read the story and left your wonderful comments, I read each and every one and they all make me write the next part faster.

Chapter 12  
  
“When do we start?” Sam asked, standing behind Steve, waiting for his next command.  
  
Steve’s phone buzzed in his pants pocket. Sam didn’t know how the thing had survived all that it had been through, but there it was. Steve fished it out and stared down at the screen.  
  
“We just did.” He said before he answered the phone.  
  
“Tony, I’m…wait, she’s what? She’s three weeks early! And she hasn’t….oh…shit. Are you serious? How long have…" He was quiet for a few minutes, listening to the chatter at the other end of the line, all of his body tense as he stood listening. "Jesus...okay, let me talk to her. Yes, now please. Tony…thank you.”  
  
There was a long pause, and Steve’s stance didn't relax at all while he waited. Sam couldn’t deny that he was curious; obviously the man on the other end of the line was Tony Stark, which was both awesome and almost normal at this point. When Steve spoke again, his voice was softer, and this really piqued Sam’s interest.  
  
“Hey doll…I’m okay, I promise. I know, but I’m fine, the doctors let me go, right? They wouldn’t do that if I wasn’t ok. I’m more concerned about you right now. I know. Darcy, I don’t…I know that, I just…yes, I know. Thor’s what? Oh, okay, that’s a good idea. Alright, we’re on our way, just hang in there; try not to start the big event without me, yeah? Okay, see you soon.”  
  
Sam watched him put the phone back in his pocket and followed him when he headed for the car that they had appropriated.  
  
“Where are we going?”  
  
“Stark Manor.”  
  
Sam fought the urge to laugh outrageously at the statement. In a world where Captain America and the Black Widow turn up on his doorstep looking for help, why wouldn’t they just pack up and head off to Tony Stark’s mansion at the end of the day?  
  
“Okay…why are we going to Stark Manor?”  
  
“My girl’s in labour.”  
  
Sam abruptly stopped walking, and after a few steps Steve stopped and half turned to see what was holding him up.  
  
“You’re gonna have to back up there and start again. You got a girl?”  
  
Steve Rogers actually grinned at him and gestured towards the car.  
  
“If I promise to explain everything, will you get in the car?”  
  
“Man, I will drive the whole way there as long as I get all the details.”  
  
Steve threw him the keys.  
  
“Deal.”  
  
* * *  
  
“That’s some heavy shit, man.” Sam was starting to wish he’d just gotten in the car, driving while hearing the whole story about Steve Rogers’ pregnant girlfriend was proving to be an interesting experience. He may have almost driven off the road once or twice. “And your old buddy happens to be her baby daddy?”  
  
Steve grimaced at him.  
  
“Do we have to use that term?”  
  
“Not really, if it bothers you."  
  
"It does. And yes…Darcy recognized him on the feeds that Tony managed to hack into."  
  
"That's insane, man."  
  
"Yeah, well…Darcy maintains that her life is a study in how the impossible is possible."  
  
“So, we’re speeding towards Stark Manor like a bat out of hell because?”  
  
Steve rubbed a hand over his face.  
  
“HYDRA’s been trying to kill her. Tony says that the first order was to get her hired into SHIELD and have her get killed in a training accident. The second was to hire two thugs to shoot her and make it look like a mugging that got out of control. Jane Foster derailed the first plan when she refused to let her go. The second one failed because Bucky shot the two guys holding guns to her head.”  
  
“Really?”  
  
“The bullets are the same as the ones that were pulled out of Nick Fury. We don’t know what’s going on, but he saved her life. Now they’re monitoring her phone, and as soon as she uses it, they have a strike team ready to move in.”  
  
“And what then?”  
  
“Apparently, their orders are to take her back to their base of operations for delivery.”  
  
“And by delivery, you mean that they want her baby.”  
  
“That’s what Tony said.”  
  
“Damn. And what’s the plan on this? Destroy the phone and move her to Latvia?”  
  
Steve chuckled and shook his head.  
  
“There’s still the risk that someone on HYDRA’s payroll eventually will see her, and she won’t live like that. In about…half an hour, she’s going to use her phone to send out the alert that she’s gone into labour.”  
  
“But, she’s already in labour…or was that you trying to be funny?”  
  
“No, she’s really in labour. Stark Manor has defenses, it’s as good a place as any to dig in and take care of anyone who tries to attack them. It’s certainly better than trying to defend a vehicle en-route. We’re equidistant to the Manor as the Stark Industries medical team, and the assumption is that the strike team is still in New York, but that’s no guarantee. The plan is that those that are currently at the Manor are going to defend it, Darcy’s moving into an underground bunker, and we’re going to get there in time to help them dispense with the strike team.”  
  
“That sounds like an awful lot being left to chance.”  
  
Steve grimaced again.  
  
“I know. I don’t like it, but I don’t have a better idea. Tony’s there, he’s started building a new suit, Barton’s there with them, he’ll be able to take care of quite a few of them.”  
  
“Barton is….”  
  
“Oh, Clint Barton, he’s part of my team, his codename is Hawkeye.”  
  
“Ah yes…I liked his style, man.”  
  
“Jane Foster and Pepper Potts are both there too. Jane is a scientist; she’s mostly there for Darcy, but Pepper….”  
  
“I know who Pepper Potts is, she’s one classy lady.”  
  
Steve narrowed his eyes at him.  
  
“How much of the Mandarin incident are you aware of?”  
  
“I heard enough to know that it can’t have been fun for anyone.”  
  
Steve proceeded to give him a basic rundown of what had happened to Pepper Potts.  
  
“Jesus.”  
  
“She’s probably more dangerous than Bucky is right now, if she puts her mind to it. I’m just not sure if she’s ready to put her mind to it.”  
  
“So, we’re the cavalry here, huh?”  
  
“Something like that.”  
  
“You know that your girl’s not going to get access to any kind of drugs. It’s not going to be pretty scene.”  
  
“Yeah…I know.”  
  
Steve bit his lip and pointed him to an exit onto a new highway.  
  
* * *  
  
Almost exactly half an hour after Darcy hit the alert button on her phone, things started to get interesting.  
  
“Sir, there is activity at the outer security fences. They appear to have an electronic device designed to locate signals in control of the exterior systems. Mr. Barton has been made aware.”  
  
Pepper and Jane looked up from where they were keeping Darcy comfortable. She winced at a contraction, and managed to gasp out a response.  
  
“That was a lot faster than we wanted…”  
  
Tony stood, tapping at a tablet.  
  
“They must have started surveying other Stark properties looking for us, once they figured out that we weren’t in the Tower. Maybe they were already on their way here to check it out.”  
  
“Great.” Darcy grunted.  
  
“JARVIS, how many are out there?”  
  
“Unknown. I was able to determine approximately a dozen before my sensors were scrambled. Mr. Barton has commenced alternative security measures, may I suggest doing the same?”  
  
“Yes, you may. Is the suit prepped for testing?”  
  
“Yes sir, but it is not….”  
  
“It doesn’t matter, we need it. Pep, you and Foster take Darcy down to the bunker, and lock the door.” He instructed.  
  
Pepper straightened and took a few steps in his direction. As secure as she believed that the underground bunker was, she was still unsettled. This team was too good, if they were already past JARVIS, and JARVIS wasn't connected to the bunker. It was the only place in the mansion that he wasn't a part of, and it had been done deliberately. The bunker was meant to be secure from everything, if JARVIS was compromised, control over the bunker still lay with those who were inside it. They weren't supposed to be able to get past JARVIS so fast.  
  
“Tony…what if they find a way to bypass the doors?”  
  
“They won’t.”  
  
“They're already past JARVIS, we don't know what kind of technology they have. You can’t leave her without protection.”   
   
He pressed a brief kiss to her forehead.  
   
“But I’m not.  I’m leaving her with the best protection there is.  Anyone gets through us, you’re more dangerous than I’ll ever be, baby.”   
   
“I’m not ready!”  
   
“Yes you are.  You’ve got this, I know you do.  You’re Pepper Potts, nobody gets by you.”   
   
Darcy whimpered a moment later, and Pepper nodded sharply, moving back to help Jane get Darcy to her feet.   
   
“Come on sweetheart, we’ve got to get moving.”  
   
“Steve?”  
   
“He’s on his way, he’ll make it.”   
   
Tony watched them leave the room and then headed for his workshop.   
   
“JARVIS, get another message through to Steve, tell him to step on the gas, we’re out of time.”   
   
“Yes sir.”  
   
* * *  
   
Darcy stopped being aware of much more than each and every contraction after Pepper and Jane helped her down into the underground bunker.  
   
She was aware that it wasn’t much by way of creature comforts, there three rooms, one with supplies, one with beds and one with really old computer terminals and assorted chairs and sofas.  They had to go through the room with computers to get to the one with the beds, and the room with all of the supplies was beyond that.   
   
Jane got her settled onto one of the beds, not much more than a camp cot, even with a couple of extra pillows to support her back.   
   
Pepper disappeared after a while, and when she noticed, Jane explained that she was monitoring the situation outside on the computers, JARVIS was created and installed in the Manor long after the bunker was built, and he wasn't connected to the bunker.  Apparently that’s what the computers were for, a connection to the outside world when it all went to hell.   
   
“How are you doing?”  Jane asked her in between contractions.  They were longer and there was a lot less time between them now.   She waved a hand absently.    
  


“All things considered? I would rather not be here. I'll make it though."  
  
“Are you sure?”  
  
Darcy tried to smile, but the next contraction made it more of a grimace.  
  
“I won’t lie, this hurts a lot and I was really looking forward to an epidural so that I didn’t have to feel everything like this, but I’ll manage. Women have been doing this for centuries without drugs, I can do it too.”  
  
Jane nodded slightly and passed her a cup of water.  
  
“Want me to check how dilated you are again?”  
  
“What was I last time?”  
  
“You were at seven, and that was half an hour ago.”  
  
“Check.”  
  
Jane ducked down under the blanket that they’d tossed across her lap and checked again.  
  
“You’re at nine.”  
  
“Fuck.” Darcy muttered. Jane patted her knee.  
  
“I’m sure Steve will be here soon.”  
  
“I know he will.”  
  
At that moment a resounding boom echoed through their little sanctuary. Jane stood and made for the door, and Darcy heard Pepper start yelling from out in the other room.  
  
When Jane shut the door, she looked a little ashen, and Darcy raised her eyebrows in question.  
  
“They’re outside. They’re trying to blow the door with something big. Pepper’s going to put a stop to them.”  
  
“They won’t get in, will they?”  
  
“Not if Pepper’s got anything to say about it. You should see her eyes...they're really kind of scary right now. But…just in case…” Jane shoved her chair up under the doorknob and pushed the second bed across the door. Then she sat on the floor next to Darcy’s bed, armed with Darcy’s taser. “That’ll help bottleneck them if they do get in here. I’m pretty sure though that none of them are going to get past Pepper.”  
  
Darcy wanted to smile, but the movement just wouldn’t come.  
  
* * *  
  
Steve had left Sam outside with Tony and Clint. They were in the middle of rounding up all the guys that were outside, and there were quite a few of them out there. Almost ridiculously so, for one girl. But, JARVIS had reported that a handful of HYDRA agents had managed to skirt around and penetrate the house, so Steve made directly for the lower level where JARVIS said the access to the bunker was. He got through to the bunker just as Pepper Potts finished with one of the agents. He took out one that was trying to get up with a swift boot to the head.  
  
Pepper whirled around, energy crackling through her body, fire in her eyes. He’d read the reports about the Extremis serum, but seeing it was a different story. It was entirely possible that she could kill him. He held up his hands.”  
  
“Pepper, it’s me.”  
  
The fire drained from her eyes and she reigned herself in.  
  
“Steve? Thank goodness, are there any more?”  
  
“Not in here. Tony, Clint and Sam are taking care of the ones left outside.”  
  
She sagged in relief, and Steve steadied her in concern, but she waved him off, going to the door behind her to open it.  
  
“I’m fine…Darcy…”  
  
She was cut off by a loud groan from beyond the first room. Steve bolted across the floor and sent the connecting door flying, just barely avoiding getting hit in the chest with Darcy’s taser.  
  
“Steve!” Darcy’s voice shouted, and he heard Jane start swearing at him, while furniture scraped across the floor. He paid her little attention however, and he was on his knees next to Darcy’s bed in seconds, grasping at her hand.  
  
“Darcy…” He muttered, not exactly sure what to do. The last update from medical had reported that they were still a half hour out. She leaned her head against him clearly relieved.  
  
“You made it.” She said with a small smile.  
  
“I told you I would. How are you doing?”  
  
“It hurts, a lot. And I have to push now.”  
  
He looked around at Jane, looking pale and shaken, and Pepper, who looked a little worse for wear with her nice suit torn at the seams and one of her heels broken. But they were both as determined as Darcy, so he nodded.  
  
“Okay, you push then, and we’ll take care of you.”  
  
* * *  
  
Steve wasn’t really aware of the passage of time after that. Darcy had a death grip on his hand, and his heart went out to her every time her face pinched in pain. Jane appeared in his field of vision every once in a while, forcing Darcy to sip at some water, or press a cool cloth to her face. Pepper had situated herself down in front of her knees and was coaching her with encouraging words, but Steve wasn’t sure how much of what she was saying was filtering into Darcy’s consciousness. He was dimly aware of Clint, Tony and Sam all appearing in the room after a while, though since they didn’t move much, Steve didn’t pay much attention.  
  
After what felt like forever, Darcy exhaled heavily in frustration, and collapsed back against the pillows, shaking her head.  
  
“I can’t…I just…” Steve shook his head, and shifted around to prop her up against his chest, in a bid to lend her some of his strength.  
  
“You can do this, doll; you’re the strongest woman I know. You can do this.”  
  
She rolled her head back and looked up at him. Her eyes were tired, but there was a fierce determination still brewing in them. She looked down at Pepper, and then beyond her to Jane, and the three men milling around the door. Steve took them in, seeing them how she was seeing them, eager supportive faces, Clint had blood smears on his arms, Sam too, and Tony’s suit was a stripped down version of the ones that Steve had previously seen, he knew that it wasn’t finished, but it was still heavily dented.  
  
Darcy’s eyes stopped on Tony and she took a deep breath.  
  
“Stark, get over here and make yourself useful, I need you to hold my feet.”  
  
Tony’s face would have been would have been comical if the situation wasn’t so serious.  
  
“Uh…I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea of that view…” Darcy’s eyes flashed dangerously.  
  
“I didn’t tell you to look, Stark! Hold my fucking feet!” She barked. She relaxed slightly, but still stared at him. “I need something to brace against, and the repulsors in the suit will help.”  
  
Tony nodded, and reluctantly moved behind Pepper and held out his still gloved hands. Darcy lifted her feet up to rest against his palms, and the change in position seemed to do the job, because she sighed in relief and, bracing herself between Steve’s chest and Tony’s hands she bore down one more time, hard.  
  
“That’s it, Darcy, that’s it! We’ve got the head!” Pepper cried, and Darcy just about cried in relief. “Okay sweetheart, we just need one more good push like that, and we’re done.”  
  
Darcy heaved a breath, Jane dabbed her face with a cold cloth, and she did it again. At Pepper’s shout that the shoulders were out, Darcy sagged against him, breathing heavily, her face red and sweaty.  
  
“It’s a girl!” Pepper was grinning and crying at the same time. “Clint, bring me one of those blankets, Tony, you can let go of her feet now.”  
  
Clint brought the blanket in, and Tony released Darcy’s feet, letting them drop to the bed with a small thump. He walked away, looking mildly dazed. Sam came in with a fresh glass of water, which she took gratefully.  
  
“Thank you…um…” Steve almost laughed the moment that she realized that she had never met him before.  
  
“Sam Wilson.”  
  
“Hi Sam, I’m Darcy.”  
  
Sam laughed.  
  
“That was kind of a given, honey. Congrats, she looks…pink.”  
  
Darcy laughed, and drank the water greedily. Pepper was gesturing to Steve, so he transferred her to Jane’s embrace while he went to cut the umbilical cord.  
  
Moments later, Steve was sitting next to Darcy, handing her over the squalling bundle of blankets.  
  
“She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” He murmured. Darcy took her and held the baby to her chest reverently. One look at her face told him that she agreed with him, one hundred percent.  
  
* * *  
  
There had been twenty in all. Two had been neutralized by the perimeter defenses, three had fallen victim to Barton's first round of traps, and he had subsequently taken down four more with his arrows before they started lobbing grenades at the trees. That was the point when Tony had gone into action, wearing the assembled pieces of his suit. Steve marveled that he wasn't injured at all, all that was built was a chest plate, repulser gauntlets and the leg pieces. By the time he and Sam had gotten there, there were four left keeping them busy, and three had gotten into the house, only to be soundly taken out of the equation by Pepper.  
  
Once the baby had been delivered, Tony had slung his arm around Sam's shoulders, somehow, and started asking about the wings, Clint had melted off to keep watch and Pepper had reverted back to the calm, collected CEO of Stark Industries and got communication lines up with Medical and giving orders. Steve, however, just carried Darcy and the baby up to the bedroom she’d been staying in and settled her into bed, crawling in next to them and wrapping himself around her. Jane appeared once to bring in a tray of breakfast for when they were hungry and to report that Thor had called in. He’d found Bruce in Chile and they would be on their way back in a day. Jane had told them to go to the Tower, by then they’d be ready to head back to the city.  
  
When Medical arrived, they checked Darcy and the baby over, ran some perfunctory tests and declared that they were both healthy and would be fit to travel back to the city in a day or two.  
  
Security teams from the Tower had come in with them, and were rounding up the guys that had invaded the place, sorting out the ones that were local criminals to be handed over to the police and taking the ones that were definitely HYDRA agents back to the city with them. Or at least they would be, once Clint and Sam were finished interrogating them.  
  
Darcy slept for a long while, and Steve dozed next to her, on the alert for any noises from the baby, or from Darcy. He’d already slept for two days anyway. When she did finally wake up, the first thing she did was kiss him thoroughly. The second was to reach for a croissant on the tray Jane had left and devour it.  
  
“Oh my god, I think I forgot what food was for a while. It’s hard to be hungry when something the size of a small watermelon is trying to escape your body.” She said, and Steve laughed with her.  
  
“Also, have I told you how glad I am that we had a birth plan?” She said with a teasing grin. Steve laughed again and laid back against a pillow.  
  
“In my defense, I really didn’t count on a HYDRA strike team trying to kidnap you.”  
  
“Kidnap me, steal my baby and then kill me you mean.” She said; all trace of humour leeching away from her voice. Steve nodded and swallowed around a lump that formed in his throat.  
  
“Darcy…”  
  
“Please don’t start apologizing. It’s hardly your fault. Just…Alexander Pierce, is he dead?” She asked. Steve nodded, and rested his forehead against hers.  
  
“He was at the Triskellion. Natasha said he didn’t survive.”  
  
“Good. And…what about….” She trailed off, her voice soft. Steve breathed deeply.  
  
“He’s disappeared. We fought, on the helicarrier, before we set them firing on each other. I think…I’m sure that he remembered something, just before everything blew. I went into the water…I shouldn’t have lived, even with the serum, without oxygen I’ll still die, and I was knocked unconscious either in the blast or from hitting the water. I’d have drowned but…”  
  
“But he pulled you out. Or, you think he pulled you out.”  
  
“There was no one else close enough. It had to be him.”  
  
“I don’t suppose there are that many people out there who are strong enough to pull an unconscious and waterlogged Captain America out of the Potomac. The ones that I can think of were most definitely not in Washington at that moment.”  
  
Steve shook his head.  
  
“Exactly. He must remember something. The man that you describe is so much like how Bucky used to be, if he can be that without remembering, he’s still in there somewhere.”  
  
Between them, the baby shifted, and Steve reached out to brush his fingers gently through her hair.  
  
“You’re going to go after him, aren’t you.” Darcy whispered softly. Steve paused and met Darcy’s eyes over her.  
  
“I have to find him, Darcy. He was all that I had once, I’m all that he’s got now, even if he doesn’t know it.”  
  
“I know. It’s okay. I just wanted to know how much time I had before I had to say goodbye.”  
  
Steve smiled softly and went back to soothing the baby.  
  
“A couple of days. We’ll make sure that you get back to the city safely. Tony’s also rebuilding Sam’s wings, so we’ll stick around while he does that, get a little rest. JARVIS says he might be able to drum up some leads for the search using the footage that he was tapped into during the battle.”  
  
“Good. That’s good. I’ll get Pepper to have the legal team draw up whatever additional paperwork we need to sign before you go. I’m already going to put your name on her birth certificate.”  
  
Steve blinked up at her.  
  
“Are you sure? Things are a bit different now…”  
  
“Not to me. Steve, I told you once, as far as I am concerned, you’re her father. James Barnes is a guy I slept with on vacation. Maybe we could have had something, but it never got the chance to be anything more than a fling. I love you, and I want you. I will be happy when you find him because he’s important to you, and I still believe that he deserves to know about Junior here. But, if he doesn’t want or can’t be part of her life, I’m not going to be upset about that. He’s going to have enough serious shit to work through without adding ‘oh by the way, this is your baby' to his brainpan, okay?”  
  
Steve smiled and pressed his lips to hers firmly.  
  
“I love you.”  
  
“Mmm. I love you too. I would show you how much, but now I’m under a ‘no sex’ rule for at least six weeks.”  
  
Steve found himself grinning at her.  
  
“Well, I guess I’ll just have to mark my calendar for six weeks from now then.”  
  
“You do that.” Darcy laughed back.  
  
  
  
Steve looked back down at the baby.  
  
“She’s so beautiful, Darcy. What are you naming her?”  
  
“Jamie.”  
  
Steve blinked, startled. She’d never mentioned that when she’d been debating over names.  
  
“Really?”  
  
“Yeah. Jamie Lewis Rogers. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it.”  
  
“It does, actually.” It was oddly touching, and he decided that he wasn’t going to question it. “I can’t believe she’s really here.”  
  
“Neither can I. I almost wouldn’t, except that I am still sore from doing it all without painkillers.”  
  
“You were amazing, doll. For all my strength, I wouldn’t be strong enough to go through what you did to bring her into the world.”  
  
“That’s why expanding the human race is left up to women. You guys are all just big babies.”  
  
Jamie chose that moment to open her eyes, staring intently up at them. She made a soft noise and then closed her eyes again, snuffling closer to Darcy.  
  
“I think that means we’re acceptable.” Darcy murmured. “Can’t back out now, Steve. She’s imprinted on you.”  
  
Steve chuckled.  
  
“Fine by me.”  
  
Darcy stretched languidly.  
  
“I should shower. I feel gross.”  
  
“You look gorgeous.”  
  
She wrinkled her nose at him.  
  
“You’re sweet, but I’ve been sweating and I’m going to be bleeding for a while, and I feel like something that’s been dredged up from the bottom of a lake. I want a bath, but that’s a no-no for a bit, so a shower will have to do.”  
  
“I get it.” And he did, really. Days of camping in forests with no running water and the lingering stench of blood death clinging to clothes came back to him. This was nothing like that, but he remembered how it felt to bathe after that, and he imagined that Darcy would feel the same. “Go, get cleaned up. She’s sleeping, I’ll keep an eye on her.”  
  
Darcy beamed at him and rolled carefully out of bed, mindful of moving too sharply.  
  
Steve shifted and gathered Jamie up into the crook of his arm. She was so light, she felt like she weighed nothing. The room was quiet, save for the slight hiss of the shower starting in the bathroom, and Steve took a few moments to really look at her.  
  
When Steve had met Bucky, they were eight years old, and he’d never known what he’d looked like as a baby, or even a toddler. It was hard then, to look at Jamie and be searching for similarities to her father. He’d had a sister though, Rebecca had been four when they met, and Steve fancied that he could see some resemblances to her in Jamie’s features.  
  
She had a head of dark hair, it was soft to the touch and very fine. When he’d seen her eyes, they had been blue, but he’d read that most babies had blue eyes to start, and they would gradually change colour. He hoped that they didn’t, both Darcy and Bucky had dark hair and blue eyes.  
  
She had officially weighed in at 6 pounds 7 ounces when medical had weighed her. At Darcy’s request, medical had not been read in on the discovery of exactly who her father was, and they had only evaluated her as a healthy baby, which is exactly what she was. They would wait for Bruce to take a closer look at her blood to determine if there was anything they needed to be worried about.  
  
She squirmed a bit in his arm, opening her eyes again and making a soft noise at him. One little hand waved itself around and he put his finger in her grasp.  
  
“You are so special, do you know that?” He said to her, quietly. “You were special already, but now that we know what we know…the fact that you even exist has got to be some kind of crazy odds. One in a million, that’s what you are.”  
  
She gurgled at him and he smiled.  
  
“I already promised that I’d be your Daddy, and I’m going to hold to that. I just hope that you do get a chance to meet your real father someday. He was the best of men, you know. And maybe I’ve got him up on a pedestal, but he was still the best guy I knew once. I hope we can get him back, baby, because he deserves to know you.”  
  
He sighed heavily, and Jamie let go of his finger to yawn and drift back off to sleep.  
  
“And if we can’t…you’ve still got me, and I’m not going anywhere.”  
  
  
* * *  
  
“Tony, it’s not rocket science. We didn’t tell anyone to bring the stupid thing with them, and I am not taking Jamie in a car without a seat, I don’t care how ‘secure’ the car is. Get me a car seat, I don’t care if you are forced out into public view to go and buy a new one or you get a flunky to bring me the one out of Steve’s place, just get one, or I’m not leaving.”  
  
Darcy stalked out of the room Tony was using as a workshop, Jamie cradled in her arms and an irritated expression on her face. Something clattered on the floor Steve looked up from the tablet he sifting through data on to see her toss a wrench back into the room with perhaps a little more force than was strictly necessary. There was a muffled yell from inside the room as it hit the intended target, Steve assumed that she'd hit Tony with it.  
  
“He’s ‘Tony’ now, is he?” he asked her, offhand, as she settled next to him on the sofa.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Up to now, you’ve been calling him ‘Stark’. Now he’s ‘Tony’.”  
  
Darcy shifted Jamie to her other arm, closer to Steve.  
  
“Oh that…well, he did hold my feet and get treated to probably the most horrific ringside seat in existence, save perhaps to a live disemboweling. And he did it with a bare minimum of complaint, so I guess he’s earned it. I can’t believe we forgot to tell someone to grab the car seat out of the apartment.” She groused.  
  
“Well, to be fair, you were a little preoccupied at the time. What with the strike team on approach and all that.”  
  
“Well yeah. Doesn’t much help right now though. I really want to go home so I can put her in her own bed. I will not sleep properly until I know I'm not going to accidentally squash her. Oh, I hope you don’t mind but I sort of set up her nursery in one of the spare rooms you had in your place.”  
  
Steve grinned at her.  
  
“I don’t mind at all, doll. Did you paint?”  
  
“No, there wasn’t enough time for that. I made do with arranging the furniture. I thought there’d be time when this was all over and done with.”  
  
“I’ll paint it.”  
  
She raised an eyebrow at him.  
  
“And when are you going to do that?”  
  
Steve grinned at her.  
  
“Don’t worry about that. There’s time. Sam'll help.”  
  
Sam stuck his head into the room as he passed by on his way to the kitchen.  
  
"Sam will what now?" He asked with raised eyebrows.  
  
"Paint Jamie's nursery."  
  
Steve shrugged, and Sam continued on his way, muttering about being hijacked by superheroes to do their dirty work.  
  
Darcy shook her head, clearly amused.  
  
“Fine, since I have other things to worry about, I’m not even going to argue with you. You paint it, and it’ll be perfect.”  
  
"It will." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, for everyone who has been asking about a 'Bucky' Chapter; here's a teaser for the next chapter:
> 
>  
> 
> “I’m not… ‘Bucky’ doesn’t exist, not anymore. Maybe he’s in my head, but I can’t find him…I don’t know who ‘Bucky’ is. The wall said that he was a hero but heroes don’t…. I’ve done things…things that he would be ashamed of.”  
> “I know. But we can help you. We can help you figure it out.”


	14. Returning to the Fold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Discovering who you are is not an easy thing. Not when there's an agency out there looking to put you back in their tool box.

He knew that he’d be found eventually.  He was their Asset; they would come for him and try to reclaim him at some point.  It followed therefore that he make every effort to be prepared when they did.  He made sure that he healed, finding a medical facility that asked no questions and leaving in the night.  He swapped his clothes for something that blended better into the crowds, but still had enough room to keep all of his weapons within easy reach.

 

He wouldn't to go back willingly.

 

That was something that he did remember, the constant feeling of being trapped.  He was theirs, and not his own, something that chafed at him in every way possible, even when he knew nothing else.  And whenever he exercised free will, they would ‘reset’ him.  

 

He wasn’t going to be ‘reset’ again, not now that he had confirmation that he should be more than what he was.  The man he'd dragged from the river had told him he had a name, and he'd sought out as much information as he could.  He’d been to the exhibit; he’d seen it with his own eyes.  The face that he saw reflecting back at him in the glassy surfaces of the city; that same face was on display, portrayed as a hero, a friend to America’s favourite son.  James Buchanan Barnes was a man worth being, according to history.  History that they had taken from him, just as they had taken his freedom.  

 

The visit to the exhibit had not been without its aftermath.    

 

His face had always been problematic.  He had seen himself for the first time several times, and each time, the image that he saw felt like it belonged to someone else.

 

Now, he saw the same face twice over.  He saw himself as he was now, and he saw James Buchanan Barnes at the same time.  He couldn’t decide which face he would rather see.

 

There were moments when he could almost remember being James Barnes. Moments when he remembered Captain America as a skinny kid with a big mouth and he remembered what being someone’s friend felt like.  In those moments, he almost felt like a real person.

   

There were other memories, lurking in the recesses of his mind, but they were always incomplete.  He could remember that he’d once had a mother, but he couldn’t remember her face, her voice, her name.  He remembered that Betsy Hoople had slapped him once for getting too fresh, but he didn’t remember what that slap had felt like, or who Betsy Hoople had been.  

 

The memories felt like watching old movie reels, like the ones in the exhibit.  They were sepia-toned and silent, images that repeated themselves when the film started rolling again.  They were bittersweet to watch because they always ended with that terrible fall.  He always remembered falling.      

 

The other memories…by comparison they were in full Technicolor.  There was blood and violence; the sounds of gunshots and screams echoed in all of the corners of his mind.  Nameless faces swam in his mind’s eye, all of them dead, and it was always his hands on the other end of the weapons that killed them.    

 

James Barnes’ memories did not feel like they should belong to the man that he had become.  He didn’t remember all of his orders, but he knew what he was.  He was an Asset.  An asset was not a hero.  An asset was no one’s friend.  

 

_“Hi James, my name is Darcy_.”

 

He remembered her.  Not her face, though he suspected that the flash of dark hair and blue eyes that came with the words was the girl he was trying to remember.  He mostly remembered her as a fleeting feeling, a feeling of being a real person to her, just as he was. There had been no memories when he was with her, there was no better man in his head at war with the man he’d become.  He’d been enough for one woman for one week.  He was pleased that some of those memories had come back.        

 

He also remembered that there had been orders, just like the others.  They weren’t his orders, but he'd been in the room when they had been set out.  He remembered seeing the hair and the eyes and he had known immediately that if the orders were successful it would be his fault, and he didn’t want that to happen.  He had evaded his handlers to stop them, knowing that when they caught up with him, they would punish him.    For going off without orders and interrupting another ‘active mission’, they had strapped him to the machine again and made him forget.

 

He didn’t know now if she was dead or alive, and he didn’t know how to find out.  Without a last name, finding a dark-haired girl named Darcy would be impossible.  There was something else, something that was missing from the memory.  That was nothing new, but for some reason it felt like this missing piece was really important.  It made him incredibly sad to consider that she was probably dead.  Mentally, he added her name to the fathomless list of those that had been the assets’ victims.  Hers was the only name he could supply.

 

* * *

 

“No, Cooper, I swear to Thor if you do not stop yammering and listen to me, I will come down there and forcibly remove your tongue.  It is a children’s benefit, not a ballroom gala.  That means there are going to be leagues of children there and you are not, I repeat, you are not going to order a thousand canapé appetizers that these kids are going to look at and declare that they’re not going to eat.  Kid food, Cooper.  Get kid food, crackers and cheese, cookies and chips, fruits.  If I see any kind of fancy shit on that supply list you’re a dead man, do you understand?”  Darcy waited a minute while the ‘intern’ stammered a reply on the other end of the cell phone.  “Good.  Do not call me again unless it’s a real emergency, got that?  Goodbye.”

 

She clicked off the phone and rubbed at her forehead with her free hand.  Jamie gurgled at her and she smiled.

 

“Boys are stupid, sweet-pea.  Especially the ones that Tony hires straight out of college to try and do my job, I think he did that just to piss me off and get me to come back to work.”    

 

Rather than hire a temporary replacement, or go without an assistant entirely for the time that Darcy was going to take with Jamie, Tony had had the awesome idea to give recent graduates some workplace experience and was slotting in one kid after another to be ‘interns’.  Cooper was the second such student, the first only lasting barely a month before Tony drove her nuts and she decided to go back to school to study botany, because plants didn’t talk.  After that, Pepper had quietly asked Darcy to ‘mentor’ them on how to work through Tony being Tony.  Cooper seemed to be determined to make it through his three month stint by making her crazy.  On paper, academically, the kid was a perfect candidate: he had a degree in business law and was planning to complete his MBA.  In practice, he was a twenty year old kid who had no idea what to expect from an internship at Stark Industries, as temporary assistant to Tony Stark.  The trouble being, business administration was absolutely nothing like Tony Stark administration, and that’s where all of his strengths crashed to the ground.  Darcy privately thought that Tony was doing that on purpose too, after all, the man liked to mess with people’s heads.  

 

She tossed the phone to the couch and turned around to find the Black Widow sitting on the sofa.

 

“Jesus Christ!  What in the hell!”  Her grip on Jamie faltered, and she swore as she recovered.  “I swear, Agent Romanoff, if you’d made me drop her, I don’t care who you are or what your skill set is, I’d have killed you.”  She growled.  The redhead raised an eyebrow at her.

 

“I believe that.”

 

Darcy sat, and gave her an incredulous look.

 

“Really?”

 

“In my experience, the most dangerous opponent that one can come across is a mother whose child is threatened.”

 

Darcy decided that she really didn’t want to hear any more on that subject, and settled Jamie in her arms and started to unbutton her top to feed her.

 

“Is there something I can help you with, Agent?” she asked.      

 

“I came to bring Steve some information I managed to dig up while I was reconstructing my identities.  I will admit, finding a baby stroller in the front hallway of my supposed bachelor friend’s apartment was a bit of a surprise.”

 

“I imagine it would be.  You didn’t know about me?”

 

“Steve, for all that he is open and honest is also very private.  When he doesn’t want to share something, he keeps it as close to the vest as possible.  I can understand why he would not want to advertise you, if there was a baby involved.  He did say that it wasn’t his first kiss since 1945, I just didn’t think he was this involved."

 

Darcy smiled.  Steve had told her about Natasha’s commanding him to kiss her while trying to evade HYDRA agents, and how it was the most uncomfortable kiss he’d ever had, partly because she was a friend and colleague but most of all because he was pretty sure that she and Barton were a ‘thing’.

 

“Jamie’s not actually his.  I was already pregnant when I met him.”  She said.  Agent Romanoff shrugged.

 

“He’s taken on responsibility for her, and that to me means much more than if she was his in the first place.”

 

“Yeah…I know.”

 

“I have read the files on you, you know.”

 

Darcy raised her eyebrows.  A few days after returning to the Tower, JARVIS had supplied everyone in residence with the files that SHIELD/HYDRA had on each of them.  Darcy had resolutely refused to read through hers.  She had no desire to see herself described by a nameless, faceless, probably evil, Agent.  It did not surprise her though, that Agent Romanoff would read through it.

 

“Of course you have.  Has who her father really is been included in them?”

 

“It has.”

 

There was a look on the other woman’s face that Darcy was having trouble deciphering, and she wasn’t sure that it was because she was a spy, trained to keep her expressions neutral, or if it was because the woman just didn’t know what to feel.

 

“Steve doesn’t know this but…I knew him.  I never knew who he really was; to me he was just the Winter Soldier.  I called him Yasha.  When I was young, still with the Red Room, I trained with him.  Everything I know about…” she didn’t say it, but Darcy knew she was referring to all the different ways she knew how to kill a person. “I learned it all from him.  We became close, after.”

 

“How close?”

 

“Very close.  Close enough that when he looked at me several years later, it hurt that he didn’t know me.  Not that I acknowledged it at the time, I was more concerned with the bullet hole he’d put in my side.”

 

“Jesus.”

 

“Hazards of the job.”

 

“And you haven’t told Steve this?”

 

The other woman shook her head.

 

“It wasn’t important.  It’s still not, it’s history.  But, I wanted to tell you so that you understand just how much of a miracle she is.  When we were together… we talked of escaping, being together free from the Red Room, but that dream was always tainted by the fact that we would never be normal.  With everything that had been done to us…we thought that family was something we couldn’t have.  I am very glad to see that we were wrong.”

 

Darcy blinked slowly, taking in everything that the woman was telling her.  There was a lot to read in between the lines, and if she was reading it right, then the spy had just told her something intensely personal, and she would take it to her grave.

 

“I also wanted to see for myself the woman that caught Steve’s attention.  It’s quite a feat, given how resistant he’s been to being set up.  Though, maybe part of it was because he was already off the market.”

 

Darcy snorted.  Was SHIELD's best spy looking for dirt?  When exactly had she stepped into a parallel universe where everyone was a fourteen year old girl?  It never seemed to end.  

 

"Geez, I thought I was done with these kinds of conversations in high school."  

 

"I never went to high school."  The Black Widow smirked at her, and Darcy found herself laughing.

 

"Why exactly are you interested in this?" she asked her, settling herself deeper into the sofa.  

 

"Because, friendship is something that I have not taken to its full advantage.  I have had acquaintances, people that I have been friendly with, but I have not had 'friends' in my life.  Perhaps because I have been too many people for so many through the years.  Steve is a particularly good friend, and I want to...support him."      

 

“So this is you, what, vetting me?”

 

The other woman shook her head.

 

“I've already vetted you.  This is me...making friends.”

 

Once again, Darcy had to let herself absorb the information.  Then, she slowly held her hand out over the top of the coffee table.

 

“It’s nice to meet you, I’m Darcy Lewis.”

 

Natasha Romanoff smiled at her and shook her hand.

 

“Hello Darcy, I’m Natasha Romanoff.”  She leaned in conspiratorially, and her smile morphed into a smirk of epic proportions.

 

“How true is the rumor that Tony Stark is afraid of you?”

 

Darcy laughed uproariously.    

 

* * *

 

Steve stared at her incredulously.

 

"Natasha what?"

 

"She decided that we're friends now.  The part that JARVIS didn't tell you when he sent over all of that information was that she turned up in the apartment two days ago to give it to you, and was promptly surprised to find baby paraphernalia littering the space.  She got herself caught up, scared the living daylights out of me and then stayed for tea."  

 

Steve wasn't entirely surprised that that Natasha had finally figured out what was going on in his personal life.  He was only surprised that it had taken her so long.  To be fair, they'd been busy recently.  Darcy was still talking over the video connection.  

 

"She's good.  Two cups of tea and she weaseled our entire story out of me."

 

"That's what she does."  

 

"I think she approves, her entire reason for making friends with me is because she's trying to support you."  Darcy smiled at him, but her eyes were serious.  "You know that she has history with James?"

 

Steve nodded.

 

"She glossed over it.  I got the impression that there was more, but it wasn't the time to get into it."

 

"There's probably a lot more than even what she told me.  They had serious history, Steve, and she's a lot older than she looks, older than even her file says."

 

"I've read the files on the Red Room, the stuff that they did to their operatives..." Darcy was nodding.  

 

"I talked to Bruce about it, he thinks that she's been treated with a form of the Erskine serum, something like the one that he was experimenting with.  She doesn't have a blood sample on file though, clever woman.  The one that she gave Stark Industries as Natalie Rushman was fake of course."  

 

"Of course."  Steve was also not surprised that Natasha's story was more involved than he might have thought.  Or at least, than he might have thought before Washington.  "Natasha is a complicated person, Darcy.  I knew that coming out of New York."  

 

"It'll be nice though, for James, when you get him back, to have someone else that's familiar.  Any luck yet?"

 

Steve sighed.  

 

"Not yet.  We were able to track him around Washington, but we were always three steps behind him, and now he's not here.  Sam's running with everything that Nat sent over though, HYDRA had plenty of safe houses near security or traffic cameras."  

 

That was the moment that Sam stuck his head into the room and gave him a grin and an enthusiastic thumbs up.  

 

“Hey man, this intel that your scary redhead sent is good, I've been sitting with your AI friend tracking our good buddy on cameras and we've got him in New York.”

 

Steve grinned.

 

“You hear that, doll?  We’re coming home.”

 

“I heard.  And Steve?  Six weeks is well over and done with.”  He answered her grin with one of his own.

 

“Duly noted.”

 

* * *

 

When they finally did come for him, he was ready.

 

He hadn’t stayed long in Washington.  Chances were higher that there were more of them in that city then there would be elsewhere, and Washington wasn’t the only place to go for information.  He’d drifted a bit, staying as much off the radar as possible. Then New York City had presented itself as a strong possibility.  That was where Captain America had come from, and that was also where James Barnes had gotten his start.      

 

He had memories, some of which were clear, others that were hazy, of New York.  He was sure that he’d never been there, and also sure that he could make his way to Coney Island without getting completely lost.

 

He also knew where all the safe houses were between the nowhere town he was passing through an New York.  He cleansed more than a couple of them.  It would attract attention, but the cash stores and weapons he could access were worth it.  

 

They tried to ambush him in an alley outside of a large building in Manhattan.

 

Three thugs materialized out of nowhere, big men with big weapons.  They were no match for him, but the three others that tried to take him by surprise were tricky after they managed to shoot him up with a tranquilizer.

 

They had used it on him before; one dart would only slow him down for a while.  Usually that was long enough for them to hit him with a second dart and that would render him unconscious.  The trick was not to let them get him with the second dart.  

 

He shot back, getting one of them in the leg and the other in the arm, but of course, five more appeared as they went down.  His response time was slower with the tranquilizer coursing through his system; they’d take him out eventually.

 

Help arrived in the form of two men dropping out of the sky and landing in the middle of the mêlée, two men that he recognized, remembered.  There was no reason for them to want to help him, but there they were, dispatching his would be captors in seconds.

 

When they finally turned to him, he didn’t know what to do.  Shaking his head to clear it of the tranquilizer fog, he focused on the man that was Captain America. _Steve Rogers was a skinny kid from Brooklyn with a big mouth that always got him into trouble._

 

“I knew you.”

 

The other man nodded.

 

“You did.  We were friends, once.”  

 

“I’m with you until the end of the line.” He breathed, the memory sticking in the forefront his mind as not much more than a sepia toned photograph.  Steve offered him a rueful smile.    

 

“Yeah…the line just got a little…complicated, that’s all.  But if you’re still with me, then I’m still with you.”

 

“What happened to us?”

 

Captain America shook his head, and his expression twisted in bitter grief.

 

“We got stuck in time.  For me it was an accident, but…I should have tried harder to make them go back for you, maybe then…Bucky…” There was desperation in Captain America's voice that he wasn’t sure that he liked, but something in his fractured mind shied away from the name.  It struck memories, but they were memories that he wasn’t sure that he deserved.    

 

“I’m not… ‘Bucky’ doesn’t exist, not anymore.  Maybe he’s there somewhere in my head, but…I don’t know who ‘Bucky’ is.  The wall said that James Barnes was a hero, but heroes don’t…. I’ve done so many things….things that he would be ashamed of.”

 

“I know.  None of that was your fault, we know that.  We can help you though; we can help you figure it out.”

 

“What happens if I can’t?”  He asked.  

 

Captain America frowned at him, clearly not understanding him.  There was no duplicity in his expression, but still…life had taught him that you can’t always trust a man’s expression.  He rephrased his question.    

 

“What will happen to me if I can’t become who you want me to be?”

 

The other man, touched Captain America’s shoulder gently.  

 

“Steve…I got this,” he stepped forward a little, hands outspread in a disarming gesture.  “We’re not them, man.  Nothing is gonna to happen to you if you can’t find Bucky Barnes again.  That’s not what this is about.  This is about deciding what to do with the person that you are now.  You’re a human being, man, and you have a right to find out the kind person that you are now, now that you’re free to make your own choices.” He scrutinized the other man, he believed what he was saying; he could read that in every word and every line of his body.  “Now, there’s nothing saying you have to come with us.  Like I said, you can make your own choices.  You could choose to walk off and figure out all this on your own.  And maybe it’d be alright in the end.  But I gotta say; this seems like the kind of thing that’s easier to do when you don’t have to beat off the predators on your own.  Steve here…you’re his friend, all he wants is to see you safe.”  

 

“I…” he thought about this a moment.  “I’m just not sure there’s enough of a person left to find.”  He turned away from them, with the tranquilizer still running through his system, he wouldn’t be very fast, but if he dismissed them, they wouldn’t follow him, not if they meant what they said.    

 

“Wait.”  The voice was sharp, desperate, but sharp.  He waited, while Captain America fumbled with something in his pocket, and he pulled out a picture, holding it out for him to take.  He did, after a long moment of consideration, looking down at the image in surprise.  

 

_“Hi James, my name is Darcy.”_

 

Now her face came clearly.  How did they know about her?  Was this a trick, a way to get him to come with them?  Had he underestimated them entirely?  He didn’t think so, but it wasn’t outside the realms of possibility.  

 

“This girl…Darcy Lewis met a man named James in Greece last summer.  She insists that he was a flirt, had a wicked sense of humor and a metal arm, but he wasn’t a killer.  He was just alone in the world and needed a friend.  She still believes that he exists somewhere.  So do we; and we can help you find him.”

 

More memory of her came back to him, jarred by the sight of her picture.  The same thing had happened when he’d seen the orders go out, he was sure.

 

“She was in danger, it was my fault.  They don’t…women don’t survive; they always made sure of that.  I didn’t want that for her, felt the eyes on me, didn’t get out in time.  There were orders and I remembered her face….”  He looked up at them desperately.  “I tried to stop it, tried to save her…they made me forget again…”

 

Captain America took a step forward, abortively attempting to reach out to him.

 

“You did.  Bucky, you did.  The two men who ambushed her were killed with soviet made slugs with no rifling, exactly like the kind of bullets that have been ascribed to the Winter Soldier.  You stopped them, you saved her life.”

 

Relief flooded through him, through the part of him that was remembering that he was real.

 

Behind them, one of his assailants sat up enough to fire off another tranquilizer.  The shot hit him in the back, and added to the sedative already coursing through his system he started having trouble focusing on the photograph.  Staying vertical would prove to be an issue in a few moments.  

 

“She was…wonderful.”  He said, and Steve nodded.

 

“She still is.  Come with us, we can help you.”

 

_Steve_ was holding out his hand to him.  This time, he was able to grasp it, and he didn’t fall.


	15. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve brings the man who used to be Bucky Barnes home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shout out once again to Sarah, my amazing beta, finds the time in her busy schedule to read through and make sure that I'm not screwing up. 
> 
> Also, much love to everyone who reads and leaves comments, I am amazed that this story has reached 400 comments! This is the most involved story that I have written in a very long time and I am so pleased to share it with all of you out there.

Chapter 14

Darcy stood outside of a room in the medical wing with Jamie, watching Bruce work through the glass. Steve was still inside, watching over everything carefully. 

When JARVIS had reported that they were on their way back to the Tower and required a room in the medical wing, the first thing that Darcy did was have him also alert Bruce and Tony. Tony wasn't in there yet, he was still hip deep in repairs to the new prototype. When he pulled himself out of it and got the rundown from JARVIS, she was sure that he'd make his way down, if only to get a look at the arm. 

"Good morning, Darcy." 

She turned, and smiled up at Thor.

"Hey, when did you get back?" Thor had been gone for the last couple of weeks, having gone out to do some clean up on some planet or other with his friends, and taken a quick trip back to Asgard to check in with his father. 

"Last evening, however I believe you were otherwise occupied." He smirked down at her with a mischievous glint in his eye that made her smirk right back at him. Steve had come back to town earlier the day before, and she'd basically kidnapped him for the night. She had been less than discreet about what she'd been planning to do with him when he came back. She was pretty sure that she'd scarred her new intern for life with her rather graphic descriptions. 

"Jane's been talking to you, huh?" 

"She may have mentioned that you have been...I believe the word was 'tetchy'. This is not a word that I am familiar with, however I can deduce its meaning from her tone."

"You can tell her that I'll shut up now." 

"This is the man that Steven calls his brother?" 

She turned back to the window.

"Yes, that's James Barnes." 

"And this is the same James that has fathered Jamie?" 

She nodded, with a deep sigh. 

"Yeah. JARVIS once calculated the odds of all this, and they were so astronomically high, most regular computers would probably explode trying to calculate them. Tony was very proud." Thor snickered with her, but sobered after a moment. 

"You are handling these events quite well. There are many who would not be so calm." 

"I know. I got used to rolling with life after you crashed into our van." She watched the set of Steve's jaw tighten even more as Bruce and a nurse set James's collarbone. "Steve is doing okay with all of this too, all things considered. I mean, I think if it were me, this would be where I started going a little loopy. They were so close, Thor. Bucky Barnes was his brother in everything but blood, and when he fell off that train in 1945, Steve was devastated." 

"I understand that feeling. I understand that feeling very well." Thor said quietly. Darcy looked up at him, he wasn't looking at her any longer, but she knew where he'd gone.

"Oh...Thor, I'm sorry..." She wrapped her free around him and tucked herself against his side. She would not deny that she wasn't sorry that Loki was dead, but she knew that Thor would always love him as his brother. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders in turn, and gave her a squeeze. 

"You meant no harm, my Darcy."

"No, but I should learn to think a little more before I say things." 

"You are who you are, my Darcy, and I would not see you change for anything this universe could offer. I think it is your penchant for saying what is on your mind that has led to where you are, and you have done much good along the way, I would say." 

"You think so?" 

"Indeed. I think that you would not have found either of these brothers if you were not the Darcy Lewis that you are now. And I think that they have both needed you, very much." 

"Stop it, you're going to make me cry. But...thanks." 

"You are welcome. And remember, if you need a...babysitter?" 

She grinned up at him, nodding. He grinned back.

"If you need a babysitter, Jane and I will be happy to lend assistance." 

She watched Bruce and Steve head out of the medical room and gave Thor a significant look, and started off to meet them in one of the ante rooms. 

"I may take you up on that. I'll let you know."

* * *

Tony had appeared by the time that Bruce and Steve left James to sleep in the medical room. Steve wouldn't say that he was surprised, but he was surprised that he was down there without any tools or bits of machinery. He'd almost expected him to turn up with a full tool box looking to get into Bucky's bionic arm. He appreciated that he had either thought that through a bit, or someone had stopped him. If it was the second option, he was torn on whether it was Pepper or Darcy. 

“Well…biology isn’t my field of expertise, and I’m not a medical doctor. But…I do know the serum. I ran some comparative DNA samples taken from all of us, and you, Tony, because you wouldn’t leave me alone about it. I used yours as a baseline ‘normal’ sample, not that you qualify as being normal. Steve, your friend was definitely treated with a similar serum to the one that made you into…”

“Captain America.” Steve finished Bruce’s sentence.

“Yes. There are couple of chemical components that are slightly different, it’s actually very similar to the one that I was testing with, but obviously he was not exposed to gamma radiation. It’s bonded to his cells the same way that it has with yours, so I would say that he’s got many of the same capabilities.”

“For example?”

“Enhanced tissue regeneration, enhanced immune system, hyped up metabolism, his system is working through that sedative at a breakneck pace, he’ll be awake again soon I should think. We’ve seen his superior speed and agility, and I would imagine the same enhanced capability to pick up new skills like you have.” 

“And he’s got to have the same resistance to extreme temperatures. Otherwise they couldn’t have kept him on ice for all that time.” Tony mused. Steve agreed silently. Darcy, quiet in the corner, looked up from nursing Jamie.

“What about Jamie?” She asked quietly. Bruce offered her a smile.

“I ran Jamie's blood against yours back when she was born. If you recall, the sample presented like regular human blood cells, but with one or two odd spikes that we couldn't account for, even knowing that her father had been treated with some form of the Erskine serum. I compared the sample against one from Mr. Barnes, and I can say that we can account for those now. I'll get a full report in a few hours, but I would say that if she inherits anything from the serum, it will be very mild.” Darcy smiled back, looking somewhat relieved. “We'll keep an eye on her during the usual growth phases, but I think she'll be fine." 

“Okay, good, that’s good. Not that a superbaby wouldn’t be cool and all, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that.” Steve went over and rubbed her shoulders, she relaxed into him gratefully.

“What about his memory?” He asked after a moment. Bruce closed the file and rubbed at the bridge of his nose.

“I’m really not that kind of doctor, Steve. They’ve done a number on his brain. The only reason that he’s not a vegetable is because of that serum. He’s had repeated bursts of electric current applied to his brain to erase his memories, and being frozen hasn’t helped any either. I have suspicions, if you’re interested, but I just don’t know for sure. We’d need to get an expert in, but I have doubts that we’d find one who’s seen anything even remotely similar to what’s been done to him.” 

“I’m interested.” Steve said, and Darcy grasped one of his hands over her shoulder with the hand that wasn’t holding Jamie to her breast. 

Bruce sighed and leaned against the table. 

“I think the reason that they kept wiping his mind was because his memories kept returning. The serum augmented your ability to retain details, right Steve?” at Steve’s nod, Bruce continued, “Your friend has the same capability, and I will bet you any amount of money that he has the route you took up here, the layout of this floor, all possible escape routes plotted and a list of items that can be used as weapons committed to memory, even though he was barely conscious.”

“Okay…”

“What about your experience memories, Steve? You can remember more than most people, you retain more for longer.”

Steve frowned. 

“I…yes, I suppose. I hadn’t really thought about it.”

Bruce nodded at him, and fiddled with the pencil he’d been using. 

“I think his memories are still in there, I think that the person that James Barnes was before he fell keeps resurfacing and making Hydra’s Winter Soldier unstable as an ‘asset’. They wiped his mind to keep their control over him. And I think that somewhere in there he knows that too. You said that he remembered Darcy?”

“Yes. He saved her life, the day those two thugs tried to kill her.”

“If they’ve been trying to eradicate everything that reminds him that he’s a human being, they would have wiped his mind after he was in Greece. But the brain is a mysterious place, and he must have retained some memory of her after they wiped him. And enough identity to know that he didn’t want her killed.” 

“That was him, that night, in my apartment, wasn’t it?” Darcy asked, shakily. 

“There aren’t that many people who could scale a skyscraper. A metal arm would be a definite advantage, so yes, I think it was. Maybe he was trying to make sure that you were okay, maybe he was trying to remember more, I don’t know. He may not even know.”

“At the time, I was still beyond terrified from earlier in the day, so a strange shadow in the room and Jane unconscious on the floor was not okay, like, at all. But when I think about it now, what I felt from him wasn’t malicious.” 

“I don’t think he remembers doing that, because he couldn’t remember if you were alive or not. It was showing him your picture that made him change his mind about coming with us.” Steve commented. She smiled gently at him.

“I would imagine that that is what most of his memories are going to be like for a while. If it’s really the effects of his serum that’s helping them to resurface, they’ll probably come back in a lot of bits and pieces as the serum heals the damage done to his brain. Not being electrocuted and put into a deep freeze will probably help with that process. And I think there’s going to be a flip side to this as well.”

“What’s that?”

“The man has been in and out of the cryo-stasis for most of the last century. Most of the time, when he was out it was to go and kill someone. It would be ridiculous to think that those memories won’t come back as well. There’s no telling how he’s going to handle that, but I wouldn't lay any odds that it's going to be a pleasant experience.”

Steve was quiet, and Darcy rubbed her free hand up and down his arm. When he did speak, his voice was rougher.

“Bucky was different, after he was captured. He was still very much my friend, but he was a little harder around the edges, a little quicker to pull the trigger than he might have been before. Most of the time he was the one going in and doing the dirty work when we went on missions. Half of that was because top brass still wanted some of my image to be as clean as it could be during a war, but the other half…they tortured him in that base, and he was out for blood. When we found him today, he said that he’d done things that James Barnes would be ashamed of, but I’m not so sure. I suspect that he’ll be more ashamed that he’s not ashamed of having done them. I think you’re right, Doc. It won’t be pretty, but I think it’s going to be harder for him to accept that he doesn’t feel as much as he thinks the old Bucky Barnes would.”

Tony stood and clapped his hands together.

“Okay then, kids. Moving on to the next question, how dangerous is this guy? I know he’s your friend, Steve, but he’s really not, right now. Should we be making sure that we’re locking our bedroom doors at night?”

Darcy rolled her eyes and threw a paperclip at him. It bounced off his nose satisfactorily before landing with a quiet ting on the floor.

“You have less tact than an elephant farting in your face, Tony.” 

“I have never claimed to have any form of tact whatsoever. Haven’t needed it before, don’t care to use it now.”

“He’s right though,” Steve said quietly, “we don’t know what is going to happen at this point. He’s both less and more dangerous than he was when he was following Hydra’s orders. He has no orders now, but if he doesn’t know what to do with that, then it’s like taking a match to a powder keg. But…we told him that we’d help him, and that he was free. I don’t want him to feel like a prisoner, I want him to feel safe.” 

“Then we need to look at safety concerns for all then, for us and for him.” 

“What about JARVIS?” Darcy asked. 

“What about JARVIS?” Tony parroted, and she made a face at him. 

“He sees all, doesn’t he? JARVIS, would you be able to keep an eye on Mr. Barnes, and alert Steve or someone if he might pose a threat to someone else in the tower?” 

“I believe that I can work that into my regular security routines, Ms Lewis. Captain, under what circumstances would you wish to be notified?” 

“Well…I don’t want him to hurt anyone, and I don’t think he would either. Tell me if he is behaving in a way that might be dangerous for someone coming upon him unexpectedly. If there’s someone in immediate danger, alert me and whoever is closest to the location. And, let me know if he may be a danger to himself too.” 

“Very good sir. I will need to monitor Mr. Barnes for a time in order to determine behaviour considered within the norm.”

“Take all the time you need, though given the circumstances, I suspect that that might be a little harder to do than it should be.”

“Perhaps, sir.” 

Appeased, Tony nodded and then muttered something incomprehensible about the repairs to his suit and left the room. Bruce put away his clipboard.

“Aside from that tranquilizer, he’s got a few cracked ribs and his collarbone needed to be set. The ribs are probably mostly healed by now, but the collarbone will give him some problems for a few hours. I’d give him something for the pain, but…”

“But like me, his body would just metabolize it in hours. How long would you reckon he’ll be down under that tranquilizer?”

“At the rate it’s metabolizing, I would say another hour or so. I would imagine that they only created it in order to knock him out long enough to get him into their machines, after that it wouldn’t matter.”

Steve sighed deeply and nodded.

“Thanks, Doc.”

“Anytime, call if you need anything, okay?” 

Bruce ambled out of the room, leaving Steve and Darcy alone. Jamie came off Darcy’s breast, asleep. Steve absently reached to take her from Darcy’s arms as she adjusted her top. He held her gently in the crook of his arm and brushed his fingertips over her face. 

“I didn't tell him about her.”

Darcy shrugged.

“Since he thought I was dead, it was probably a wise choice. How do we want to do this?” 

Steve pressed a light kiss to her lips.

"I think we’ll have to play this by ear, doll. Try to give him time to adjust to everything, see what memories come back. I really don’t think we can spring something like this on him.”

“No, that I’ll agree with. So, we’ll see how it goes then. In the meantime, you look dead on your feet, take Jamie and go find a bed somewhere. I’ll stay here with him.” 

Steve’s sigh was bone deep.

“Are you sure? I don’t know what he’ll do when he wakes up.”

“You said he remembered me. I don’t think he’ll hurt me, and it might help, knowing that I’m really here and that it wasn’t some kind of lure. I’m hardly an expert, but, I dunno, it might help. I’m not connected to his past the way you are. Seeing you first thing might feel too much there’s some expectation.” 

Steve frowned, but eventually he nodded.

“I’m too tired to argue, and you’re probably right. Just…be careful, and JARVIS, wake me when he wakes up.” 

“Yes, Captain.” 

* * *

When he woke, the room was unfamiliar and he immediately recoiled, rolling off of the bed and into a crouch on the floor, looking for his weapons. The clothes he had been wearing were folded on a chair across the room, he could see them. All of his weapons were carelessly piled on the floor next to it, all he needed was to go over and collect them up and…

“Dude, I really think that if you wanted to mount an offensive, the floor is not the best place to do it.” He swung his head around to the other chair in the room, occupied by a dark haired girl with big blue eyes. He straightened, staring at her as he remembered the alley, Captain America, Steve. It was a relief to know that it hadn’t been a lie. 

“Where am I?” he asked her, taking in more of the room now that the moment of panic had passed. It looked like a hospital room, a normal one, not the kind that They liked to use. There were no machines here, a small comfort. The girl grinned and put down the yarn she was working with. 

“You’re in the medical wing of the ‘Avengers’ tower in New York.” She held her hands to the side of her head and crooked her fingers as she said the word ‘Avengers’. It was an odd movement, and he didn’t understand what it meant. She was still talking, and he focused back on her words. “It’s actually the New York base of operations for Stark Industries, it used to be Stark Tower, but after the battle in Manhattan the other letters fell off, and he’s too lazy to put new ones on.”

“Stark…I knew a Stark, didn’t I?” The name was familiar, and it brought with it memories that were both good and bad. He sat carefully on the edge of the bed, taking time now to assess the physical damage. His ribs ached dully, and he must have broken his collarbone during the fight, because it hurt every time he moved. His arm had been taped into a sling before he’d unhooked it, and he started trying to put it back together. The collar bone would heal better if it was straight. 

“You did, once. I couldn’t tell you if you were friends or not, but you knew Howard Stark. When you meet Tony, I’d say try not to freak out at the resemblance, but there’s not much point. Knowing him, he’ll freak you out anyway.” 

She stood up and reached around to help him with the sling. He ducked away from her hands out of instinct. In his experience, people who tried to touch him never had benign motives. She stood back immediately, holding up her hands, as if to show him that she wasn’t armed.

“May I help you with that sling? It’ll be easier with a second pair of hands, and you won’t wreck Dr. Banner’s handiwork.” She said in an even tone. She waited until he nodded, and when she approached him again, he let her. 

She made quick work of putting everything back together, and she was smiling when she stood back, though it was tinged with sadness. 

There was something nagging at his memory, something he should remember but it kept dancing away when he reached for it. He focused on what he could remember. 

“Your name is Darcy.”

She smiled at him brightly. He remembered that smile, and it made him want to smile back at her. 

“Yes it is.” 

Tentatively, he reached across the small distance for her hand, and she let him have it, though he could tell from the way her brow furrowed that she wasn’t sure what he was doing. He kissed the back of it and squeezed her fingers.

“I’m sorry.” 

“What for?”

“You were in danger, and it was my fault. They always…” he paused, he didn’t really remember much of his other liaisons, and he didn’t really want to get into that here and now. But she hooked her foot around her chair to yank it closer to sit and look up at him, and she rested her other hand on his knee gently.

“HYDRA killed all of the other women that you met whenever you managed to get away from them.”

He blinked and stared at her. 

“You know?”

“They kept it all on file. They kept files on everything that they did to you, everything that they did with you, everything that they ordered you to do for them. Those girls…I went through each of their files. I thought; someone needed to see them, to acknowledge them and remember that they had been people once; someone needed to remember the truth about them. There were five, and… it wasn’t exactly pretty.” 

“I know. I didn’t want that for you, I thought I got out in time. I didn’t mean for you to become a target, I’m sorry.” He couldn’t look her in the eye. If he’d only left her alone, she wouldn’t have had to go through any of this. 

“Hey, it’s okay.” She ducked her head so she could maintain eye contact. “I don’t know what you remember from Greece, but I have told everyone who’ll listen to me that I don’t regret a moment of the time we were there together. If I did that…well, there are things that I just can’t regret that we’ll get into later. They picked the wrong chick to try to take out because not only am I tough as nails, but I have friends in high places. Some of them wear spandex, but hey, I make it a rule never to criticize someone’s fashion choice. The point is, I’m still here; they didn’t get me, and some of that was thanks to you too.” 

“I remember.” He didn’t understand half of what she’d just said, but he remembered more now about being on the rooftop, the two low life thugs in the sight of his rifle and how satisfying it had been to watch them fall. He wasn’t going to tell her that though. 

“Good. So, I want you to do this for me, okay? Whenever you get to thinking about me becoming a target I want you to also remember that you saved my life. Technically, I was already a target, they’d already marked me out after New Mexico, and if I wasn’t before I’m definitely one now, so it doesn’t matter in the long run.”

“New Mexico?” 

“That is a very long story which I think would probably make your head explode, so ask me about it again sometime, and I will tell you all.” She grinned at him, and he found himself smiling back.

“Why are you here? Where’s…where’s Steve?” 

“Well, someone needed to make sure that you didn’t have a freak out in here. Steve was so exhausted that I sent him to bed.” 

A smirk crawled up his face, almost of its own volition and he let go of her hand. 

“You his keeper, doll?” he asked, leaning back onto the bed. His own tone of voice surprised him and her eyes flickered at the endearment that he hadn’t really meant to say. Her smile amped up a bit. 

“I think that the preferred term is ‘girlfriend’. He needs someone to take care of him.” 

“He always did.” He said quietly. She leaned back into her chair, eyeing him critically. 

“When was the last time that you slept? And I mean proper sleep. Not shot up with elephant tranquilizer and shoved in a freezer box.”

Part of him cringed at the blunt way that she put it, but another part of him appreciated that she didn’t pull any punches. He remembered that she had been like that before, straight and to the point. 

“I…I don’t know.”

“Oh my god, okay…c’mon, get back in there. You need real sleep, or your body is going to shut down. Let’s go.” She stood again and waved her hands at the bed, though he noted that she carefully avoided touching him unexpectedly. He appreciated the thought, but he caught her hand as she was straightening his blanket. 

“Will you stay?”

She smiled and brushed at his hair gently. 

“I’ll stay for as long as I can, okay?”

He nodded, and he let himself sleep.


	16. Waking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky Barnes is starting to come back, bit by bit.

Sam came to relieve her after a couple of hours. JARVIS reported that Steve had been alerted when James had woken up, but on confirmation that there was no threat, he had gone back to sleep. Darcy was reluctant to go when he’d seemed to be so comfortable with her presence, but Jamie would be getting hungry, and she hadn’t left Steve any instructions on feeding her. 

When she got back to their apartment, she found the most heartwarming sight she’d seen for a long time. 

Steve was passed out on the sofa, dead to the world, and Jamie was asleep on his chest. One of his hands was resting on her bottom, keeping her in place, the other had dropped to the floor where an empty bottle laid next to his fingers. 

She couldn’t help it; she took a picture before she went to go and pump. 

She was in the middle of the second breast when arms snaked around her middle, and Steve pressed a kiss to her temple.

“Hey.” 

“Hey. Sleep well?”

“Yeah, I needed it.” 

“I know.” 

“I put Jamie in her crib and turned on the monitor.” 

“That’s good. You were so adorable, I took a picture. And total kudos to you for feeding her, by the way.” 

“She woke up when the alert came in and started to fuss. JARVIS may have told me that the bottles were in the fridge.”

“Maybe, but, you still could have wimped out and called for me. I’m just sad that I missed it, I bet it would have made a great picture.” 

“If I may, Miss Lewis, I took the liberty of recording the moment for posterity. I have sent stills to your email.” 

She grinned.

“JARVIS, has anyone told you lately how much you rock?” 

“It has been remarked, Miss Lewis, I thank you.”

She finished pumping and put the bottle away in the fridge. Steve let her go to clean the pump out and set them to dry. When she was finished, he turned her around and wrapped her up in his arms again. 

“He couldn’t remember when he’d slept last.” She said quietly, after a long moment. 

“What?” Steve asked, pulling away to look at her. 

“He looked so exhausted, sitting there; I asked him when he’d slept last. Not drugged and put on ice, but actually really slept. He couldn’t remember. He may not have had a real night’s sleep since 1945. I’d wake up to find him awake every morning in Greece, no matter what time it was, so I don’t know how much he slept then. I can’t even…” 

Steve tucked her head into his shoulder and ran his fingers through her hair. 

“HYDRA didn't think of him as a person. They used him as a tool. And when they didn’t need him, they just put him away. Did you actually use the term ‘on ice’?” 

“Actually I said ‘shot up with elephant tranquilizer and shoved in a freezer box’.” 

“You didn’t.” 

“I did. I’m not going to pussyfoot around everything that’s been done to him, Steve. I don’t work like that, and you know it. I don’t do it with you, so why should I do it with him?”

“I…I don’t know.” 

“There you go. He’s going to get enough people who want to try and sugarcoat shit and sweep stuff under the rug. What they’re forgetting is that as much as he wasn’t in control, all of that is still a part of his past. It’ll be better for him to face it straight on and accept it, maybe even learn from it. It might help him figure himself out now.” 

Steve was quiet, but he nodded against her hair in agreement. 

“How did he seem, otherwise? JARVIS said he wasn’t exhibiting any threatening behaviour.”

She breathed deeply, and Steve moved with her to the sofa. 

“He remembered my name. And he seems to remember most of what happened in Greece. He’s stable, I think, for now. He mostly just seemed tired. He did have a moment though, where ‘Bucky Barnes’ came through.”

“Oh?” 

“He asked me if I was your keeper.” 

Steve laughed, but it was a bittersweet kind of laughter. 

“And he called me ‘doll’ again.” 

“I guess that’s a good sign, right? That’s there’s still some of him in there, even if he thinks that there isn’t.” 

* * *

Steve had left Darcy to a much needed nap and headed up to medical. Bruce was there, studying a clipboard that Steve assumed had some of Bucky’s test results recorded. 

“He’s still sleeping?” Steve asked, and Bruce nodded and waved the clipboard at him. 

“I ran some tests on his blood. The tranquilizer has metabolized out of his system completely at this point. I think this is more related to the fact that his body just needs real sleep.” 

“Darcy said that he couldn’t remember the last time he actually slept. She’s not sure if he slept at all when they were in Greece.”   
Bruce nodded, and took his glasses off to rub at his eyes. 

“Cryogenics is a field that has been met with limited success. Even those who have succeeded don’t know all of the effects that it can have on the human body, even one that’s been enhanced. I think that his enhancements really only allowed him to survive the process.”

“Like me.” Steve was well aware that if he was anyone else but who he’d become, he wouldn’t have survived the crash. Bruce looked him in the eye and nodded.

“Like you, only with a rinse and repeat cycle added to the mix.” 

Steve leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“We all joke around about me sleeping for almost 70 years, but…it wasn’t like I was just taking a nap. I don’t think I was aware of anything, but it’s not like I woke up feeling rested. I don't know about you, but I can go days just sleeping a couple of hours…but then there are times when I sleep for twelve hours a stretch to make up for it. You think he’s wired the same way?”

“More than likely. Who knows how long he went between being frozen again, and if he slept at all during those times. If he was on a mission, he probably didn’t. And Greece…well, he was on the run, how much sleep did you get when you were on the run?”

“None. Not until after it was all over, and I was in the hospital.” 

“Exactly, I would bet that he didn’t sleep all that much in Greece. He probably only got enough to remain alert. Now he needs to recharge the batteries, and he’s registered that he’s in a secure enough place to do it in.” 

“That’s a good thing, right? That he knows he’s safe?” 

“Yes. I think that’s a very good thing, Steve.” 

“How long has he been out?” 

“Since Darcy was in here, a good eight hours so far. Sam’s gone to get some rest now, the chair’s free if you want to go in and sit with him.” 

“Yeah…yeah, thanks.” 

Bruce nodded and gestured towards the door as he disappeared, and Steve entered the room quietly. Bucky was asleep as Darcy had left him, he didn’t look like he’d moved in hours. Steve pulled a chair between Bucky and the door and sat down. 

* * *  
In the movies, the damaged hero always wakes from his nightmares with a shout, sweating and battling with the invisible terrors that feature in his nightmares. In reality, years of training and situational awareness mean that James Barnes doesn’t move a muscle on waking, not until he’s assessed his circumstances and knows what he is up against.  
The echoing screams and the repeating crackle of gunfire fade away to the sound of a familiar voice speaking in a low tone, and he wasn’t sure if that was better. 

“S’funny, Buck. We always had such different tastes in girls. You liked the ones that were lookin’ for a good time, and when I had the choice, I liked the ones that had plans, ideas and dreams. But, here we are, seventy years removed, and we both found the same gal.” 

He heard a shuffle and a deep sigh next to him.

“You’re right you know, she is wonderful. I never figured on finding a gal again, not after waking up in the future and finding out that everything that I knew was just a memory to just about everyone. They’re all gone, all of the old gang. Well…Peggy’s not really gone, she’s just… she’s not herself anymore, and that’s harder to deal with sometimes. But with Darcy, it’s like I’m getting a second chance that I didn’t know I could ask for. And I don’t think I can give them up.”

“You shouldn’t.” 

He opened his eyes and found Steve sitting in the same chair that Darcy had occupied when he went to sleep. He was more familiar now, now that he had a few more memories sitting a little more clearly in his head. It was bittersweet though, they weren’t the same men anymore, and they couldn’t go back.   
Still, Steve was looking at him like he was some kind of miracle, and that made him want to both smile and take a swing at him. 

“You used to be smaller.” 

“I joined the army. Buck…James…”

He waved his bionic hand at him dismissively. Before, it had bothered him, the way that Steve had used the name hadn’t been familiar, he didn’t have a frame of reference to fit it into and it felt like he was being compared to an idea. The idea of ‘Bucky Barnes’ wasn’t one that he felt like he could fit into. 

It didn’t feel as foreign now. 

“It’s alright, you can call me that. I think I can get used to it.”

One eyebrow rose, and the disbelieving expression called to some other, happier memories. Two kids knocking around the old neighbourhood, cocky and looking for trouble, and they sometimes couldn’t believe the shit that they stirred up. 

“You sure?”

Physically, this Steve Rogers was completely different. Taller, broader, healthier. But, his expressions, his inflections and his convictions; they were all the same. It was like Captain America had been inside that skinny kid all along. And maybe he had. He looked away from him. 

“I’m sure. I don’t feel like him…that man that you remember, but, the name doesn’t feel as strange as it did before.”

“If you’re sure…I ‘preciate it. It’s kind of a hard habit to break.” 

He felt himself smirk, and it almost felt natural. 

“How much are you starting to remember?” Steve asked him after a minute. 

It was a fair question, he supposed, thinking about it. He started absently unraveling the sling that Darcy had helped him with hours earlier.

“It feels like I remember a lot. Pieces were coming back already...and more have come back since the alley. I don’t have the whole picture though, and I know it. Part of the trouble is that I don’t necessarily know what the whole picture is supposed to look like, so I don’t know when I’ve remembered all of something or not.”

“Bruce…er, Dr. Banner, is of the opinion that the serum that HYDRA treated you with when they had you imprisoned in 1943 is what’s responsible for bringing your memories back. That they had to keep wiping your memory to keep you under their thumb.” 

He blinked. A memory of a cage and a dozen other men suddenly came to mind, on its heels came one of a small room with a small man and a lot of pain. 

“Zola…his name was Zola. He was in the room with me, he was the one with the needles.”

Steve nodded.

“Yes…he was Johann Schmidt’s scientist.” His lips thinned and he frowned heavily. It was a look that James remembered as being the one that Steve wore when he’d thought of something that he didn’t want to talk about. 

“Tell me.” 

“Bucky…”

“Just…tell me, Steve.” 

He leaned back in his chair and looked deeply unhappy.

“We were on a mission to capture Arnim Zola when you fell.” 

Wind rushing past his ears, ground rushing at him, Steve’s face disappearing…pain…terrible pain.

“…it turns out that the SSR turned around and recruited him, and he’s the one that kept HYDRA alive within our own organizations for the last seventy years. Bastard even put his own mind into computer banks and stayed alive this whole time.” 

Metal squealed as Steve clenched his fists around the arms of the chair. When he relaxed, he gave a small, embarrassed half smile that he remembered well.

“Sorry. You probably don’t really need to hear all that. I have some…lingering anger over it.”

“I can tell.” He cast around for something else to say while he turned and levered himself off the bed. He felt much better, after sleeping. “Tell me, what else does this Dr. Banner have an opinion on?” 

Steve’s smile morphed into one that was more relaxed. 

“Doc has an opinion on a lot of things, he just usually gets drowned out by Tony. But on you… and keep in mind that he’s a formally trained physicist, his medical doctoring is more of what Darcy refers to as an ‘informal second career’, and he’s not a biologist or a neurologist.” James blinked at him, but nodded. Steve continued. “Bruce thinks that all of your memories will come back on their own, but there’s no telling how long it’ll take. You may have a lot of holes for a while. He also thinks that you’ll get all of your memories back, not just the ones of James Barnes before he fell.” 

He would have to agree with Dr. Banner’s assessment, if his dreams were anything to go by. 

“Your doc’s a smart man.”

“That’s already happening huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Of course it is, otherwise you wouldn’t remember Darcy.” Steve mused, frowning down at his hands. “I’m sorry…this isn’t exactly my field of expertise.” 

“I don’t think it’s anybody’s field of expertise, punk. Don’t feel bad about things that you can’t change.”

“I try not to…but I want to help you.” 

“I know. You have, and you are, Steve. Don’t ever doubt that.”

He looked around the room again, and reached for his boots, sitting next to the bed. 

“So…what happens now?” He asked. Steve looked like he was considering.

“That depends, really. Medically speaking, you’re all clear. All the injuries that you sustained in the alley have healed, and that tranq they shot you up with has already processed out of your system. You don’t have to stay here, Tony had an apartment set up for you on the residential floors, if you’d like to see it.” 

“Yeah…yeah, I could do that.”

* * *

“This is us, Darcy and I, that is. Tony’s set you up across the hall, in case you need anything. He says it’s not much, but you can do what you want with it.” 

Steve opened the door and stepped aside to let him look for himself. The place was enormous.

“Holy…this is bigger than the entire tenement building we lived in in ’38.” 

He paused as memory sprang up and fitted itself into his mind. Behind him, Steve barked a laugh.

“It’s bigger than the whole block, practically. I didn’t know what to do with half the space in mine until Darcy moved in with…all her stuff.” 

“What am I supposed to do with this much space? I don’t even have…” He had nothing. His current possessions he’d appropriated in his travels, he had nothing that was his own. Steve followed him further into the space, closing the door as he went. 

“I asked myself the same thing. Took forever and Darcy moving in to really figure it out.” 

“How’d you meet her, anyway?” He asked while he investigated the palatial apartment. The windows were potential entry points, even with the security system in place, covered as they were with dark thick curtains however, they were at least largely taken care of, and could be saved as potential exit points. The kitchen was easily accessible and fully stocked. He ventured down a hallway that led to bedrooms and a bathroom that only existed in ‘luxury’ catalogues. 

“It was really chance. Thor had come from London, and Stark offered her boss, Dr. Foster, the opportunity to work at his labs. Jane agreed, but only if Darcy could come too. I met her when they first arrived, she was in the kitchen swearing a blue streak a mile wide.”

“That sounds like Darcy. She was a pistol.” 

“How much of Greece do you remember?” 

They came back into the living area and he tested out one of the giant sofa. 

“I remember that it was the most human that I’d felt in a long time. She was the one that approached me, and most of the time the ladies tend to shy away from the arm, but she looked past it right off. I remember that it was my idea to invite her back to the safe house I had there. It should have been a red flag...I knew better, somewhere in my head, I knew that it would be safer the other way around. But, she made it so easy to just be...me. Even though I didn’t know who I was.” 

“She does that.” 

He had to smile at the expression on Steve’s face. The Steve that he remembered was not so great with women. But, he’d deserved a good one, even back then. 

“You in love at last, punk?” 

Steve grinned at him bashfully. 

“Yeah a bit...is that going to bother you?” 

“Nah... what we had, could have been something, I’m not gonna lie, but for that to have happened.... I’d have needed to be somebody else. It didn’t get the chance to be anything more than stolen time on an island, and we knew that that was probably going to happen going in. I’d told her I’d probably disappear. But...she meant something, and she still does. That’s why I couldn’t let them kill her, I knew she meant something. That and...” He stopped short, his memory suddenly drawing a blank. There had been more, he knew that. There was a piece missing, something had been so important...

“Bucky?” 

He looked up at Steve, and something in his friend’s eyes told him that he was right. 

“I’m forgetting something.” 

Steve nodded slowly.

“I’m not sure that I should tell you.” 

He shook his head.

“S’better when I remember on my own.” 

He closed his eyes and let his mind try to piece together the puzzle.

Darcy in Greece, dark hair and tanned skin. Soft, all soft curves, hair and skin together. A smile that was special, could have lit the world with it. A laugh that could have warmed the coldest parts of the world. Slender in a red bikini, shorts so short they were probably illegal. That last morning, smiling at him so sweetly. Darcy in surveillance photos, tan waning with the change of seasons, bulky sweaters and coats shrouding her form, but still that smile, still that laugh. Darcy in the sights of his rifle as he targeted her attackers, terrified and pained, and in the chaos that followed his shots, a glimpse of what was under the bulky coat. The reason that he tracked them back...here.

“She was pregnant. When they put out the orders for her life, she was pregnant.” 

He opened his eyes and met Steve’s, who looked back at him while he pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket.

He turned it over to find a picture of a dark haired baby sleeping in the crook of someone’s arm. 

“Darcy gave birth to a healthy baby girl a few days after Washington. The baby came three weeks early and Darcy delivered her in the middle of a fight with a HYDRA strike team, who had orders to kidnap her and her baby. She was amazing.” Steve paused, his expression glowing with pride. When he spoke again, his voice was a little hoarser, choking up with emotion. “She named the baby Jamie, after her biological father. I reckon she’s going to look like Rebecca when she starts growin’ up.” 

His eyes snapped from the picture to Steve’s face in an instant. A hazy memory of a dark haired girl who followed him around with eager and laughing eyes rose to the forefront of his mind. He could almost remember her face, but he could hear her laughter in his mind, and it had never failed to make him smile. 

Rebecca…his beautiful baby sister. Rebecca, who would have mourned his death and had to move on with her life without him, something else that HYDRA had taken from him. 

“She’s mine?” but he already knew the answer, “of course she’s mine…that night on the rooftop…I’d wondered.” It was a matter of simple calculations. They’d been together in August, nine months less three weeks would have been April. When he’d seen her that one night, she would have been seven months along, and visibly pregnant, even in a coat. His mind would have made the same calculation, reached the same conclusion. 

He focused back on the photo again, taking in all of the details that he might have overlooked before. There wasn’t much detail that one could glean from a photo of a baby sleeping. But…both he and Darcy had dark hair, blue eyes. Darcy did bear a striking resemblance to his memory of Rebecca, a thought which now made him cringe just a bit. If the baby got any of the Barnes genes, he thought, she was going to look exactly like Rebecca, and there would be a league of boys to scare off in fifteen years and…

The thought drew him up short. The Barnes genes weren’t the same as they’d been before. 

“The baby…did the serum affect the baby?” 

Steve shook his head, and the relief that went through him felt completely foreign. 

“Dr. Banner ran some tests on her blood, the serum hasn’t had any effect on her, but that doesn’t rule out that it won’t. We’ll just keep an eye on her, he’ll test her blood again at her major growth phases. For now though, she’s a normal, healthy baby. Cute as a button too.” 

“Takes after her momma then.” He commented absently. “I…I can’t. I can’t be her father, Steve…I’ve done too much, and I’ll just ruin her.” 

He registered that Steve wanted to reach out to him, and he let him. His hand rested against his metal shoulder lightly, an anchor to hold on to. 

“Hey…it’s okay. She’s not expecting anything from you. She never expected to run into ‘James’ from Greece ever again, and was all set to do this all on her own, until I met her. She wanted you to know about her, at least. But, she’d never ask you for anything you couldn’t give.” 

He nodded, eyes still fixed on the photo. 

“You’re gonna take care of them?” 

“Yeah…yeah, I am. I fell in love with her, Buck, and Jamie…”

“Needs a daddy who can be what she needs. I can’t do that, not right now. You be her father, punk. I don’t know how long it’s going to take before I can be much more than a fucked up mess, and she needs a father.” 

Beside him, Steve huffed a laugh, and Bucky knew that he’d made the right decision. He wasn’t what a child needed. He’d be there, he’d watch her grow up, protect them all with everything that he was, but he just couldn’t be someone’s father. 

“Are you sure?”

Bucky chewed on his lip but looked up from the photo. 

“Yes, I’m sure. My head’s not in the right place, not right now. I can’t be what she needs. But you can, and…you’ve always wanted family, punk. I’m not going to take that away from you.”

“They can be your family too.” 

“And they will be. I’ll…I’ll be that crazy uncle that teaches her inappropriate things, and makes her momma crazy. I’ll be there, you can count on that, when I’m ready.” 

Steve smiled at him, and he went to hand back the photo.

“Keep it. There’s already hundreds. He nodded and tucked the photo under his pillow. 

“She named her Jamie?” 

Steve grinned. 

“Yep. Interestingly, she’d been thinking about ‘Sophie’ for a girl up until our world inverted itself.” 

Bucky snorted and it turned into the first real laugh that he’d had in a very long time. 

“I did say she was a pistol, that girl. Probably what attracted both of us in the first place. You can tell her that I’m flattered.” 

Steve laughed heartily with him.


	17. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky has trouble adjusting, naturally. And we reach the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is the end. There's an epilogue, but this is the end of the main action. 
> 
> Many many kudos go to Sarah for being my awesome beta for the bulk of this beast. This has been the most involved story I've written in a very long time, and I'm a little sad to see it finish, but it's also great to be done. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who's stuck with this all the way through, I hope that you've enjoyed the journey!

The End

 

In the weeks following his arrival at the Tower, Bucky was left mostly in peace. Steve visited, as did Darcy, with and without the baby. She kept asking him if he wanted to hold Jamie, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to do that yet. 

In the end it only took one major incident. He nearly fell back into programming that he didn’t know was still there, and that was all it took to tell him that he needed to work on sorting himself out. 

Tony Stark has been largely absent around the Tower for much of that time. He heard the man referred to, he overheard Darcy speaking to him, or if not him, then she was tearing a strip off the latest assistant. But the man himself didn’t appear in the flesh for quite a while.   
When he did, ostensibly to take a look at his arm and provide an engineer’s opinion on its inner workings (something that Darcy said he’d been dying to do since word came down that Bucky had been located), it was like the ghost of Howard Stark walked into the room. Suddenly he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think beyond ‘mission: failed’ and there had been what his mother would have called a ‘ruckus’ in his rooms as three things happened at once. 

He tried to put Tony Stark in a strangle hold, Steve threw him into a wall, and Natalia Romanova came back into his life.

Really, he was only aware of the first two until he woke up again. 

When he came back to himself, shaking off of the black fog of the mission, he was lying on one of the sofas in his rooms, and a redhead that he thought he’d never see again was sitting cross legged in a chair opposite him. 

“Hello старый друг.” She greeted him with a small smile. He sat up on the couch that he was laying on. 

“любимая девушка….you’re alive?” 

“Interestingly, yes.” 

Flashes of blood, pain and horror chased themselves through his mind, a dozen different missions that he worked with the deadly woman now sitting across from him in jeans and a t-shirt. Her face was softer now, the lines of her body still as dangerous, but now more at peace than he’d ever known her to be.

“What happened?” 

“Do you mean, what happened to me, or what happened today?”

“Either, both.” 

“I struck out on my own for a while…got into some trouble. I ended up being recruited by SHIELD, offered a second chance to clean the red out of my ledger. By rights, I shouldn’t be here, but the agent that was sent to neutralize me…he made a different call. Now…SHIELD is gone, and I am rebuilding. Today it looks like the Winter Soldier remembered a mission that he was sent on many years ago.” 

She unfolded her legs and produced a file from somewhere on her person. “JARVIS found this in the HYDRA files that we uploaded to the world. According to official history, Howard Stark was killed in a car accident, HYDRA’s files confirm that the accident wasn’t an accident. But the accident wasn’t what was supposed to happen, was it?”  
His mind blanked out, going back to that room, to when the target had walked in and overrode something in his brain. He made himself think past that.

“There was a mission. The target was Howard Stark. The asset…I was sent to kill him at a conference. The mission was meant to be easy, a quick shot while he spoke, public message sent. The idea was that a rival company would be suspected of assassinating him and make Stark Industries the leading technology group in America.”

“But that didn’t happen.”

“The asset malfunctioned.” 

“Explain.”

“I… remembered him. I didn’t understand it at the time, but…I remembered him, and I couldn’t take the shot. They pulled me out, changed the orders and sent another agent to cause the accident. That was the only mission that the Winter Soldier failed. They started to wipe me more frequently after that.” 

“And seeing Stark triggered that memory.”

“Yes…who?”

“The man that you tried to attack earlier, it was Tony Stark, and he’s Howard’s son. He was sixteen when the accident happened, graduating from MIT. He’s as much a genius as his father was. Steve says that he’s just as frustrating at times.” She said this last with a small smile, but he was feeling considerably less than comfortable enough to smile at the situation. 

“He alright? Stark?” 

Her face changed, the expression going from neutral to consideration. He had never seen Natalia Romanova’s face do anything like that. Where they had been, any display of emotion got you killed. That alone was enough testament that she had changed, had gotten out and allowed herself to be more than what they had made her to be. 

“He’s up in his lab spitting about how he’s missed his one chance to get up close to your arm, so I think he’s going to be fine. Bruised, but fine. Steve’s a bit of a mess, Darcy’s with him.” 

“I didn’t mean for anything to happen….” 

“Of course you didn’t… but there was always a possibility that there would be a relapse. I had a few myself…in the early days.”

“You were able to shake the programming.”

She fixed him with an inscrutable stare, the stare that he was more than familiar with. 

“Yes, I was. It took a while. And some of it, I couldn’t do on my own.” 

“How did you do it?”

“I went back. Back to all the places where they had been. Made myself remember what they did to me, what they turned me into, and I made a conscious choice not to be that person. It was very hard to do, but well worth it in the end. I was my own self again, something I hadn’t been in a long time. I didn’t forget it, everything that I used to be. I still use it, it’s a tool in my arsenal. That’s how you shake it. You use it to your advantage.” 

Bucky considered her, her relaxed position on his chair. As much as she had changed, he knew just by looking at her that she could neutralize any threat that came through the door with little effort, and she would give him a run for his money on the battlefield. Hell, she’d almost had him in D.C., when he….

“I shot you.” 

She looked him in the eye and nodded.

“Twice. Once here,” she pointed at her shoulder, “and once here,” her hand moved down to her abdomen. “It’s alright, you had a mission, you didn’t know me, and I was in your way.”

“No excuse…we meant something to each other once.”

“We did once. Maybe we will again. Only time will tell.” 

He made up his mind in that moment. 

“If I leave this place, try to take the same path you did…will you come with me?”

“I can’t guarantee that we’ll find the James Barnes that you used to be. I didn’t find the Natalia that I used to be.”

“But you did find a Natalia that you are comfortable being. That’s all I want. And if I do it here…I could put people in danger. I could put Jamie in danger.” 

“Yes, you could.”

“I don’t want that. I don’t want to hurt the people that I…” He paused, trying to find the right words.

“Care about?” 

He nodded slowly. She stood, heading for the door. 

“I’ll help you…but you’re the one who has to tell Steve.” 

* * * 

“I need to work this out. Away from here.” 

“Buck…”

“Not forever, Steve. But, you can’t tell me that you thought this was going to be easy. There are too many holes, and if what happened yesterday is any indication, there’s still programming that needs to get worked out of my head. I’m too dangerous to stay here right now, especially around a baby. I don’t want to ever cause her any harm.” 

Steve sighed deeply and looked very unhappy for a long moment. Bucky could understand that. The man thought he was getting his friend back, he wanted to get his friend back. He really did want to be better for Steve. But the best way to do that, without putting people in danger was to do it this way. 

“Natasha is going to go with you?” Steve asked. Bucky nodded. 

“Yeah…she can help. She’s shaken the programming herself. She knows what this is like and what is most likely to set off my triggers. She said that someone named Clint was going to meet us out there too. I guess he helped her out some.” 

“He did. More than I realized I guess. I don’t like it…but I understand it.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone, Steve.” 

“I know. I just wish there was another way.” Steve drew himself up to his full height and squared his shoulders, looking more like Captain America than Steve Rogers. “You’ll let us know you’re alright, won’t you? And say goodbye to Jamie, before you go?” 

“Of course. And I’ll be back, Steve. I promise you that.” 

“I’m going to hold you to that.” 

* * * 

It was late, maybe a little too late when he slid silently into the room down the hall from Steve and Darcy’s bedroom. He had almost expected to get caught already, getting into their apartment had been easy, all he’d had to do was ask the A.I. that monitored the place to unlock the door for him. 

He had, however, timed it perfectly, as the baby was just waking up from her sleep and starting to make noises. He approached the cradle, peering down at its occupant curiously. 

He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he’d helped to create this tiny human being.  
She squawked quietly, and he gently lifted her out of the cradle, holding her in the crook of his human arm. 

In the dark, she blinked sleepily up at him with eyes he knew she’d inherited from her mother. 

“Hey baby doll.” He said in a low tone. “How about we give your momma a break tonight?” He put her down on the changing table next to the cradle, and very quickly swapped out the wet diaper with a dry one. He wasn’t entirely sure how he knew what he was doing, but he decided that it really didn’t matter. Once she was all buttoned up again, he held up a bottle that he’d retrieved from the refrigerator in the kitchen, warmed per the A.I.’s instructions. “Hungry, baby doll?” 

She took the bottle eagerly, and he moved to sit in the rocking chair that was set up in the corner of the room. 

“I gotta say baby doll, this isn’t somewhere I ever expected to sit. I’m not exactly a candidate for father of the year, you know. But that’s okay, because Steve…he is. He’ll be the daddy that you need, baby doll. He’ll be what I can’t be for you, because it’s what you deserve. I wish I could be what you need, Jamie, I really do. I just can’t risk anything happening to you because of me. So, I’m going to go away for a while, and if there’s any kind of luck still left in the universe for me, I’ll be able to work out all my issues and come back. Or, at least most of them, because, I promise I’ll be there when you need me. All you have to do is yell, and I’ll come runnin’, I swear.”

The baby spat out the bottle nipple and gurgled at him. Bucky smiled down at her. 

“Of course I do, baby doll. Even when I didn’t know about you, I loved you.”

She gurgled again, and he lifted her to his shoulder to burp her. That was when he noticed Darcy in the doorway, her phone pointed in their general direction. 

“For posterity,” she said, “no one would believe it otherwise.” 

He huffed, and handed Jamie over to Darcy when the baby started to fuss. She soothed her, swaying back and forth to put her to sleep again.

“Sorry if we woke you. I wanted to give you a break.” 

“You didn’t, my internal clock has me up at this time every night. Its fine, I used the time to pump.” 

She turned to look at him, her smile turning tight and sad. 

“Steve is a little upset that you’re leaving. He gets it, but…you know he’s a worrywart, right?” 

“Always has been.” 

“Just…know that you do have a place to come home to, okay? When it gets tough, or if there’s any reason at all, you can come back, no matter what.”

“I’ll be back when I’m better.” 

“Yeah…but Bucky, everyone’s definition of ‘better’ is different. For Stark it’s not building a shitton of suits in an obsessive, manic craze. For Pepper, it’s not exploding. For Banner, it’ll be not turning into a giant green rage monster.” She bit her lip and looked at her feet. “What I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t matter if you can’t sort everything out, if you want to come home, come home. We’ll all be here for you, ‘better’, or not.”

He was touched by the sentiment. It was a soothing thought, the idea of ‘home’. He hadn’t had one in such a long time, it was almost foreign. He touched her shoulder gently, a gesture of thanks, and she smiled again, more freely. 

She bent to put the baby back into the cradle, having rocked her back to sleep. 

“This is a nice cradle.” He commented. She grinned, a little confused by the change of subject. 

“Steve found it and restored it. He used to have one like it, apparently.” 

“So did we… I think. It was white, when Rebecca used it. Or pink…those aren’t original though.” He pointed at the etchings around the teddy bear, all of the symbols of the Avengers. He’d learned them all, in the short time that he’d been there. 

“Steve’s idea. So she knows that she’s protected.” 

“It’s nice. It’s just missing something…” 

Before Darcy could protest, he pulled a one of his knives from a hiding place and set it into the wood, at the top of the etched bear’s visible arm. In a few quick strokes, he was finished, without even leaving a scraping inside the cradle itself. He brushed a thumb over the star he’d just carved into the wood. It didn’t look the same as the rest of the etchings, but he figured a little stain would take care of that. Beside him, Darcy hummed, delighted.

“It’s perfect.”

“I’m coming back, doll. I promised.” 

“I know. Good luck, Bucky.” 

He melted into the night, and Darcy stood in the darkened room over Jamie’s cradle for a few long moments before Steve appeared behind her. 

“Was that Bucky?”

She nodded. 

“Yeah…he’s promised to come back.”

“I know. And I believe him.” 

“Come on…let’s go back to bed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the Russian in this is what Google Translate says is 'old friend' and 'darling girl'. I am crossing my fingers that it's mostly correct.


	18. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Sarah for the beta on this story, she has been awesome. And thanks to everyone who's been with me the whole way through, you guys are also awesome :)

Epilogue 

 

Bucky Barnes sauntered into the Tower, laden with shopping bags. He could have conscripted help from any of the lurking security folks, but there was a high chance that there would be complaints from his pint-sized companion if he handed over a bag containing anything that was ‘special’. 

Said companion was skipping along in front of him wearing possibly the pinkest outfit that he’d ever seen, but he supposed when you were a five year old girl, this was normal. The tutu though…he’d put his foot down on wearing that to the shopping centre, Darcy would murder him if she tore it before the recital on Saturday. 

“Uncle Bucky! Can we have pizza?” 

“You just had lunch, babydoll.” 

“For dinner, silly!” 

“I suppose, it’s Friday. Your mom and dad won’t mind.” 

“Yay!” 

Jamie danced around him clapping her hands while they waited for the elevator. 

Steve was due back from a mission sometime that day. At the time, Bucky had wanted to go with him, but the mission hadn’t called for any heavy back up. 

Besides, Steve had been worried about Darcy, she hadn’t been feeling very well lately, and he wanted someone home who could keep an eye on her. Normally Jane would be fine, but at eight months pregnant, she wouldn’t be any help to Darcy if she was really sick, and Thor had been called offworld very suddenly a few days beforehand. 

As it happened, it turned out to be very fortunate that Bucky was hanging around the Tower, because that morning Darcy woke up vomiting, and decided to go and get herself checked out. Bucky was always the favoured of Jamie’s babysitters. 

Darcy was probably already back from her appointment, but since Jamie had been rambunctious that morning, Bucky had decided that it would be best to tire her out a little in the hopes of giving Darcy a little peace in the afternoon. If she was sick, she’d need rest. 

When they arrived back at Steve and Darcy’s place, he could tell that they were both home and holed up in their bedroom. He could hear both of their voices coming from that direction at a low murmur. Normally that would make Bucky smirk and tease them both for a few hours when they emerged, but the murmurs didn’t sound right for getting down and dirty. 

“Alright babydoll, you want to watch a movie?” 

“Yes! Can we watch Frozen?” 

“Sure, JARVIS?” 

“I am cueing up Frozen as we speak, Sergeant. If I may, the Captain and Mrs. Rogers have requested privacy for the time being; however I have notified them that you and Miss Rogers have returned from your outing.” 

“Great, thanks. Is everything alright?” 

“Privacy protocols forbid me from being specific; however I can say that nothing is wrong.” 

Bucky nodded, and headed down the hallway to deposit Jamie’s treasures in her bedroom. Darcy would scold him for spoiling her again, but that was a small price to pay for making Jamie smile. Besides, she was growing like a weed and needed some new clothes anyway. And the dolls…well…he’d been away on a mission for Easter, and he always got her a little something special for Easter. 

“Uncle Bucky! Come watch with me!” Jamie called from the living room, where she had undoubtedly created herself a nest out of the couch cushions by now. 

Bucky smiled to himself and headed back down the hall, detouring to the kitchen to make some popcorn before taking the massive bowl to the living room with him. Jamie eagerly appropriated the bowl over to her lap, until she determined that it was hard to lounge with it sitting awkwardly on her little legs, and got up to settle in his lap with the bowl in front of both of them. 

Steve and Darcy made an appearance just as Anna and Kristoff were climbing the ice staircase. Darcy looked a little pale, but happy, and Steve looked like he had just hung the moon. 

“JARVIS can we pause the movie for a minute please, we have something to share.” Darcy said. Jamie protested mildly, but obediently faced her parents when Bucky shifted to face them on the couch. 

“Everything alright?” he asked. Steve grinned and nodded, and Darcy smiled along with him. 

“Yes…it’s just that…well, you know that I haven’t been feeling well lately, and that I went to the doctor today to find out what the trouble was?” 

This was more for Jamie’s benefit, since Bucky knew all of this already, and Jamie nodded seriously. 

“Well, the doctor says that I’m not sick. She says that we’re going to have another baby.” 

If Steve’s face could manage it, Bucky sure that he’d be grinning more. Bucky was glad. As much as Steve loved Jamie like she was his own, the punk had always wanted a houseful of kids. 

Bucky grinned and hefted Jamie off his lap to give Darcy a hug. 

“Congrats doll. You know you’re already an awesome Mom, this little bit is damned lucky.” 

“Thanks Buck,” she said with a smile. She turned to give Jamie a hug and he felt her pause. “What’s wrong, sweet pea? You’re getting a new brother or sister, I thought you’d be excited.” 

Sure enough, Jamie looked extremely serious, almost uncharacteristically so. 

“I want to keep Daddy.” 

Darcy blinked, and Bucky was sure that he had the same gobsmacked look on his face that Steve did. 

“Well of course we’re keeping Daddy, we love him too much to let him get away…” Darcy started with a smiled and an elbow to Steve’s side, but Jamie was shaking her head.

“But Daddy’s the new baby’s Daddy, so who’s going to be my Daddy now?”

“Sweetheart…nobody’s saying that Daddy’s going to stop being your Daddy…” 

“I’m not really Daddy’s though, I’m Uncle Bucky’s. So if the new baby is Daddy’s, and if Uncle Bucky doesn’t want to be my Daddy....” She sounded like she was close to tears. Darcy looked stricken, and Bucky didn’t blame her. He felt a little like the world had just been swept out from under his feet, and he hadn’t felt that since coming to this Tower for the first time five years ago. 

“Whoa, whoa,” Bucky knelt in front of her to look her in the eye. “Babydoll…I don’t know how you know all that, but your Daddy is still going to be your Daddy, no matter about me or how many babies come along.” 

“Really?” 

“Really,” Steve knelt down next to him, and gripped her small shoulders gently to turn her to look at him. “Jamie, I love you so very much and nothing is ever going to change that. You are as much mine as this new baby, okay?”

“What about Uncle Bucky?” She asked in a small voice. 

“Oh, babydoll, it’s not that I don’t want to be your Daddy. It’s….” It was really hard to put into terms that a five year old would understand is what it was. How in the hell did she even know this? This was a conversation that was set for when she was old enough to understand it fully. “When you were a baby, I loved you, but I couldn’t take care of you.” He started, and then Darcy got down with them and Jamie turned to look at her. 

“We decided that it was better for you to have a Daddy that loved you and could take care of you at the same time. And then Uncle Bucky came home again and was better, he’s been the best Uncle Bucky ever, right?” 

Jamie nodded, and a smile started forming on her face. Darcy smiled back and opened her arms for a hug, Jamie darted into them eagerly. 

“And he’ll keep on being the best Uncle Bucky ever. We all love you, Jamie. That’s not going to change, ever.” 

“Okay.” 

“Good. How did you know all of this anyway?” Darcy asked. Jamie blinked up at her innocently.   
“I listened.” 

“You listened? Listened to what?” 

“You and Daddy talking. You said that Daddy had the same…” she stumbled over an unfamiliar word, “ser-um, that Uncle Bucky did and maybe it would make the new baby the same as me.” 

They all blinked rapidly and glanced amongst themselves in surprise. 

“Sweetheart…you could hear us talking in our bedroom from all the way out here?” 

“Uh huh. I can hear you when you’re kissing too.” 

At that both Darcy and Steve blushed profusely and Bucky howled with laughter. They both turned glares on him and he shrugged.

“Don’t look at me, my hearing’s better than most but with your door shut I can only hear enough to know what you’re doing, I never get specifics.” 

“We’re soundproofing the bedroom first thing tomorrow.” Darcy growled, and Steve nodded in agreement. “Alright, so it looks like we should probably get Dr. Bruce to take a look at you again, see what other special talents you’ve inherited from Uncle Bucky.”

“Okay!” Jamie loved Dr. Bruce. He always had her favourite lollipops. 

“So, are you feeling better about a new baby now?” Darcy asked her, and Jamie nodded eagerly. 

“Yeah! I like babies.”

“Yes, we know you do, sweetheart.” 

“Can we turn Frozen back on now?” 

Everyone nodded, and she giggled madly, dropping herself back onto her cushion nest. Steve and Darcy moved back onto the couch and Bucky re-filled the popcorn bowl. 

Life was good.


End file.
